What Is Acceptance and Commitment Therapy?
Clinically Reviewed by Dr. Kate Smith
Acceptance and commitment therapy is a mindfulness approach to accepting the hardships you are experiencing. Often referred to simply as ACT, the goal of acceptance and commitment therapy is to improve the overall quality of your life. During ACT in Boston, clients experience a kind of psychotherapy not unlike cognitive-behavioral therapy; the approach is designed to help you focus on the present and your current situation while managing overwhelming emotions you may be experiencing. To find therapists for acceptance and commitment in Massachusetts, consult our medical professionals by contacting us online or call 877.920.6583 today.
What Is Acceptance and Commitment Therapy?
Acceptance and commitment therapy is designed to eliminate unnecessary emotional dwelling and reduce a client’s negative thinking. To accomplish these goals, a variety of therapeutic approaches are used that will:
- Use proved behavioral analysis
- Incorporate healthy mindfulness
- Practice acceptance
- Use deliteralization to put distance between you and your feelings so that they will have less of a hold over you
When you find therapists for acceptance and commitment that suit your personality and personal needs, a licensed professional therapist will help you develop a bespoke set of essential life skills and vital coping mechanisms that will be ideally suited for you and your unique life situation. These are the tools you will rely upon and call on to enjoy a full, meaningful, and happier life.
Additionally, ACT in Boston will keep you centered in the present day. Acceptance and commitment therapy will keep you grounded in the here and now and show that you cannot move forward safely and productively without fully grasping and appreciating where you are currently.
How Does ACT Work?
Often a part of a partial hospitalization program, acceptance and commitment therapy has a treatment time that will vary from person to person, depending on how long each client needs to heal from the harmful effects of the negative emotions they’ve been experiencing. Furthermore, when you find therapists for acceptance and commitment, you will begin to reframe your way of thinking to treat any depression, anxiety, or other mental disorders that may present. Your experience with acceptance and commitment therapy will be unique, customized to you and your struggles.
During ACT in Boston, you will be processing difficult emotions and coming to a series of crucial understandings, including the knowledge that you:
- Have control over your body, even if you are not always in control of what is happening around you
- Will not be good at everything you try, and that is okay
- Have many strengths, and they are more valuable than your weaknesses
- Do not need to act on every single thought
- Have a past, and that exists in the past because the things you did and what happened to you years ago are not happening now
Acceptance and commitment therapy works in three areas:
Accept Your Emotions With Mindfulness
ACT in Boston will help you accept that some things are simply out of your control. When you learn to focus only on the things you can control, the stress and anxiety you have been feeling over the things outside your purview will begin to dissipate.
Choose a Direction
In this step of acceptance and commitment therapy, you begin to take charge of your life. Because you will have gained autonomy over your life and have selected a healthy path forward, you are now ready to proceed with living a healthier and happier life.
Act Accordingly
This is the action phase. The time to strike has come, and your acceptance and commitment therapy will now propel you forward instead of remaining stagnant in a harmful stew of negative emotions.
Learn More at Greater Boston Addiction Centers
Acceptance and commitment therapy at Greater Boston Addiction Centers can act as the starting point for reshaping the rest of your life. Learn more and find therapists for acceptance and commitment by contacting us using our secure online form or call us confidentially at 877.920.6583 today.
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