Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) Q&A
Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) assists you in accepting your thoughts and feelings while also committing to fulfilling your ideals. It seeks to help you move past challenging emotions so that you can focus your energy on healing rather than dwelling on the negative. For more information, contact us or book an appointment online. We have convenient locations to serve you in Riverdale UT, Kaysville UT, Draper UT, and St. George, UT.


Table of Contents:
What does acceptance and commitment therapy do?
What are the 4 A’s of acceptance and commitment therapy?
What are the six key processes involved in acceptance and commitment therapy?
What is the difference between ACT and CBT?
Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) is a type of psychotherapy that helps you to stay focused on the present by allowing you to accept your feelings and thoughts. This approach is highly effective for those who have difficulty working through intense or scary emotions and find themselves dwelling on the negative instead of healing.
ACT teaches you effective coping skills to get through tough times and overwhelming feelings. This technique involves mindfulness strategies to help you ground yourself during times of panic, stress, anger or sadness. ACT is beneficial for those living with a variety of mental health conditions, including:
• Anxiety.
• Depression.
• Phobias.
• Chronic stress.
• Substance abuse.
If you are ready to take control of your mental health, this therapy can help you develop strong coping skills to combat symptoms of mental illness. The experts at Gold Counseling specialize in ACT and can help you get started on your journey to enhanced mental wellness.
In ACT, there are 4 A’s to represent the process of working through overwhelming emotions toward improved mental wellness. They are:
• Acknowledge – During treatment, it’s important to acknowledge the trauma you are dealing with and the emotions that come along with it. By acknowledging your feelings, you are one step closer to processing them.
• Allow – It’s crucial to allow yourself to experience your feelings to process them and move forward. Many people compartmentalize their emotions and don’t allow themselves to experience them in full, resulting in frustration and resentment.
• Accommodate – After acknowledging big emotions and allowing yourself to feel them, it’s important to adopt strategies to cope with similar situations in the future. Effective coping strategies are extremely important for people affected by flashbacks, panic attacks, depressive symptoms, eating disorders, substance abuse disorders, and various other mental health concerns.
• Appreciate – Lastly, it’s crucial to appreciate the progress achieved in therapy. By appreciating your improvement, you can stay motivated throughout your journey to better mental health.
There are various processes in ACT which are all designed to achieve psychological flexibility in mind. The six processes of ACT are:
• Contacting the present moment – It’s important to take a moment to breathe in stressful situations to check in with your body and ground yourself.
• Diffusion – To change our relationship with our thoughts, we should take a break from engaging with them and focus on observing them.
• Acceptance – Through ACT, it’s possible to learn how to allow negative thoughts and experiences to occur without trying to change or deny them.
• Self-as-context – It’s crucial to understand that you are not your thoughts and fears, you are simply experiencing them.
• Values – Through ACT, you can discover your values and allow yourself to pursue them despite anxiety and other difficult emotions.
• Committed actions – This approach helps people commit to actions that will help them achieve long-term goals as well as enjoy improved mental wellness.
As there are several similarities between them, ACT and CBT can be confused with one another, but there are some key distinctions between the two methods. The goal of CBT is to help individuals break patterns and find healthier ways of thinking and behaving.
In contrast, ACT does not focus on minimizing negative emotions as CBT does. The core principle of ACT is that people should acknowledge and accept big or overwhelming emotions. The goal of this approach is to allow people to process emotions and make informed choices that are not affected by previous trauma.
In addition, CBT is typically intended for shorter-term treatment, whereas ACT can be used for short or long duration. Overall, if you think that you can benefit from ACT and want to find out more, we recommend a consultation session with one of our experts. For more information, contact us or book an appointment online. We serve patients from Riverdale UT, Washington Terrace UT, Clinton UT, Kaysville UT, Clearfield UT, Farmington UT, Draper UT, Riverton UT, Sandy UT, St. George, UT, Bloomington UT, Santa Clara, UT, and surrounding areas.


Additional Services You May Need
▸ Relationship Counselling
▸ Couples Counselling
▸ Individual Therapy
▸ EMDR Therapy
▸ Spiritual Healing
▸ Disordered Eating
▸ LGBTQIA+ Therapy
▸ Group Psychotherapy
▸ Life Coaching Therapist
▸ Depression Treatment
▸ Mental Health Clinic
▸ Life Transition Therapy
▸ Telehealth Counseling
▸ Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
▸ Dialectic Behavioral Therapy (DBT)