(ACT) For Your Recovery
When you take the first step in seeking treatment, you may become quickly overwhelmed by the number of options out there. Whether you’re seeking treatment for a substance use disorder or a mental health concern, Centered Recovery is here to help guide you to the right treatment for you! At Centered, we incorporate Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) into our unique program aimed at guiding you toward a balanced and fulfilling life! ACT focuses on teaching you skills to live a fulfilling life despite the difficulties that we will inevitably face in our lives. Centered Recovery is going to take a deep dive into how ACT works and is utilized, and we invite you to see how this can be used in your treatment in our outpatient program!
What is Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)?
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, also known as ACT, is a relatively modern psychotherapy option. ACT uses the practice of mindfulness and behavioral change techniques to improve your psychological flexibility. Now, what do we mean by psychological flexibility? Essentially, psychological flexibility is your ability to adapt to demanding situations and remain present, despite unpleasant thoughts or feelings. Most psychotherapy options tend to focus on reducing or completely getting rid of negative thought patterns or emotions. With ACT, the goal is to accept that these experiences are a very normal part of the human experience. Even though difficult emotions or experiences are inevitable, we can still live meaningful lives by effectively handling them. ACT focuses on helping you in your journey to do just that: live an enjoyable life despite the challenges that come with being human.
The Core Principles of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy
Within ACT, there are six core principles. Let’s dive into each of them!
Acceptance
As humans, we tend to try to run from experiences or emotions that feel unpleasant to us. For example, if we know the roads are going to be full of traffic, we may opt to leave later. If we know our day at work is going to be especially stressful, we may take a sick day. If we believe someone is upset with us, we may choose to avoid them. We run from unpleasant experiences all the time! We’re especially good at running when it comes to difficult emotions or thoughts.
Our internal worlds often feel chaotic and unpleasant, and we become very good at running away from them. The goal of the principle of acceptance is to embrace the experiences we feel inside without trying to change or get rid of them. If we can learn to accept our internal experiences, we reduce the negative influences of these experiences on our everyday lives.
Cognitive Defusion
It’s easy for us to get caught in a loop of negative emotions. When we can’t break ourselves out of this loop, we take these emotions as fact, when they rarely are. When we take these emotions as fact, the rest of our world begins to be filtered through this lens. It’s a difficult loop to be stuck in, which is where cognitive defusion comes into play. The goal of cognitive defusion is to detach ourselves from our thoughts.
Instead of seeing the thoughts as facts, we can look at them as if they were words or images crossing our minds. We can observe the thought without getting caught in the loop it creates. For some, repeating a thought aloud until it no longer has meaning and power can be a helpful technique. Another technique may include imagining our thoughts as leaves floating downstream. The goal here is to remove the power that our thoughts can have over how we feel and behave.
Being Present
How many times do we find ourselves thinking about something we said or did in the past? How many times do we catch ourselves fearing the worst may come in the future? For most of us, the answer is likely often. The goal of being present is to be with the here and now, rather than getting stuck in past troubles or future worries. Another way to look at being present is the practice of mindfulness. Mindfulness practices teach us how to engage fully with the present moment, which can help us respond to situations in a more positive way. Mindfulness practices are a big part of this therapeutic approach, and we will dive into that deeper in a few minutes!
Self-as-Context
We often hold our internal experiences so close to ourselves that we become that experience. For example, maybe we find ourselves feeling anxious before a social event. Instead of seeing that feeling as a temporary emotion, we tend to think “I am anxious”. Think back to your school days. Imagine you failed an exam. Instead of taking it for what it is, we tend to quickly tell ourselves that we are a failure. Self-as-context helps us to understand that we are more than what we think and feel. We can experience emotions and not be defined by them. Where emotions, thoughts, and sensations come and go, the self remains stable and constant. It’s important to remember here that we are not our thoughts!
Values
Values that we hold guide our actions in life. Our values remind us of what we believe to be important in life. Sometimes, though, we can forget these values. When we get stuck in a loop of negative thoughts or emotions, it becomes difficult to remember what’s important to us. If we can identify our core values and return to them when we need a reminder, we can live a more meaningful life. Being reminded of what we value most in our lives is essential to setting goals that align with what matters to us.
Committed Action
Once we have identified the values most important to us, what’s next? Committed action involves making steps towards goals that align with our core values. Even when we are faced with difficulty, we can still make steps towards the goals that we have set for ourselves. When we set specific and reachable goals, and we consistently work towards them, we are setting ourselves up for growth and positive change.
What Can Acceptance and Commitment Therapy Treat?
ACT is a very versatile tool that can be used to treat many different difficulties that we may encounter throughout our lives. There are many, but here’s just a few areas that ACT can treat:
Anxiety Disorders
ACT helps individuals with anxiety disorders by teaching acceptance of anxious thoughts and feelings without trying to run away from them. When those with anxiety disorders turn to avoidant behaviors, it tends to only reinforce the anxiety. ACT also encourages individuals to choose activities that are meaningful to them and align with their values. This helps the individual stay present, rather than spiraling into anxious thoughts.
Depression
ACT helps treat depression because it teaches individuals to break away from the loop of negative thoughts and inactivity. When we learn to accept depressive experiences without judgment, the impact reduces. ACT also highlights the importance of personal values in our lives. For those with depression, it can be helpful to identify these values and take committed actions towards them. No matter how small, it can help reduce the loss of interest or motivation that we commonly see in depression.
Substance Use Disorders
ACT can be especially helpful in guiding individuals to accept cravings and potential urges without acting on them. If we can learn to not fight our cravings, but rather accept them for what they are, we free up space for us to focus on our values. Committed actions towards these values help us to remain in long-term recovery.
Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder
ACT is especially helpful in the treatment of OCD by teaching acceptance of intrusive thoughts without engaging in compulsive behavior. ACT teaches individuals to see the thoughts as just thoughts, rather than demands to be acted on. When the distress of this disorder is lessened, individuals then have more space to move towards actions that align with their values.
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
ACT can help individuals with PTSD by teaching them skills to accept traumatic memories while also reducing avoidance behaviors. Present-moment awareness is especially important in this approach, as it can help reduce the power of traumatic experiences.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Mindfulness
ACT is closely tied to mindfulness, whether you may have realized that or not. There are many ways that these two treatment approaches go hand in hand!
- ACT places importance on mindfulness by encouraging individuals to stay engaged in the current moment.
- ACT and mindfulness both place importance on accepting thoughts and feelings as they are without trying to change them.
- Both mindfulness and ACT focus on seeing thoughts as temporary events in the mind, instead of facts that need to be acted on.
- When it comes to internal experiences, both ACT and mindfulness stress the importance of a non-judgemental attitude.
- Mindfulness can help individuals identify their values. Awareness of these values is then used in ACT to guide individuals towards actions that lead to a meaningful life.
- ACT often utilizes mindfulness practices to help individuals feel more focused on the present moment.
Incorporating Acceptance and Commitment Therapy at Centered Recovery
Now that you know all about Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, it’s time to see if Centered Recovery is a great fit for you! At Centered, we utilize a mindfulness-based, non-12-step mental health and drug abuse treatment program. Our program utilizes multiple mental health therapies, such as ACT, through one-on-one counseling and an innovative psychoeducational program. Our program focuses on helping you on your journey to the best version of yourself! ACT has been proven to be an effective treatment option for a variety of mental health concerns, and here at Centered, we incorporate this practice into our model. Our goal is to help our clients realize their innate ability to overcome even the most difficult addictions so they can go on to lead successful, healthy lives!
Contact Centered Recovery Programs Today!
Centered Recovery Programs, located in the heart of Roswell, Georgia, is a mindfulness-based outpatient drug and alcohol rehab treatment program. When choosing the best drug and alcohol treatment program, keeping all these different aspects in mind is essential. Our staff will always tailor your treatment to your needs and goals for the future!
Whether you prefer to attend treatment in person or need virtual telehealth services, we can help! Centered Recovery has been providing meaningful, quality care to Georgia residents since 2017, and we have the most Google Reviews of any treatment provider in the state–all five stars!
If you have been considering a guided alcohol and drug rehab, or you have been struggling with mild mental health disorders such as anxiety, depression, overwhelming stress, or burnout issues, and would like to understand the difference that a mindfulness-based program can make, please give us a call at 800-556-2966 to speak to one of our Admissions Team counselors today!
Written by Sydney Christiansen, Clinical Intern
