Acceptance and Commitment Therapy

ACT is a set of six overlapping processes that are designed to cultivate ‘psychological flexibility’. This helps us respond effectively to the fluctuating forces in work and life, whilst being the person we would like to be.

What is Acceptance and Commitment Therapy

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, or “ACT”, was originally created to support humans in a therapeutic environment.

But don’t be alarmed by the word ‘Therapy’. My work is informed by ACT research in the workplace over the last 20+ years, which means I am building on strong behavioural foundations.

Importantly, ACT encourages individuals to be present in the moment, even when it’s uncomfortable, and to focus on what really matters in life.

This approach is based on the idea that struggling to avoid or eliminate uncomfortable thoughts and feelings can lead us to behave in ways that are not helpful to our health, or the impact we’d like to have in the world.

It allows us to consider what matters to us, and then express those qualities in our behaviour.

ACT: In focus

ACT combines six processes to enhance life vitality and psychological well-being.

In my work I tend not to get tangled up in describing the six processes, that usually takes people to a heady place.

Instead, I seek to create an experiential environment so people can practice the skills and feel their impact directly.

ACT has been shown to increase psychological well-being, significantly reduce burnout, reduce worry and rumination outside of work, providing skills that can be applied to every area of life.

Being Present

Noticing that we can be on autopilot for a significant proportion of our waking hours.

The ability to wake up from autopilot and step into the present moment is a human superpower.

Values

How we want to be in the world, and this includes our working lives.

By exploring what matters, we can identify our personal values and use them as a beacon for our behaviour, to help us make decisions, communicate and relate to others.

Committed Action

Taking steps to express our personal values in our behaviour.

Through making values-based choices about our behaviour, we are reinforcing those personal qualities that matter to us.

Self-as-Context

Engaging our observing mind.

Becoming familiar with this part of ourselves can help us make conscious choices, rather than being driven by our stories that can be based upon our previous experience.

Defusion

Noticing what our minds are up to.

Defusion is about exploring those unhelpful thoughts and recognising them for what they are, fleeting words, sensations or images.

Acceptance

How we relate to our uncomfortable thoughts and feelings.

Instead of trying to avoid, supress or eliminate them, ACT helps us make room for these inner experiences.

The benefits of ACT

The many ways that Acceptance and Commitment Therapy can help both individuals and organisations.

Improved psychological well-being

The evidence shows that attending an ACT skills training intervention can significantly improve psychological well-being, which is a robust and reliable predictor of performance, attendance and turnover.

Significantly reduced burnout

Burnout is an increasingly frequent issue in the workplace, and ACT training has been shown to significantly reduce burnout and its impact.

Reduce worry and rumination outside of working hours

When people don’t have the skills to disconnect from their roles, they can be consumed by work worries outside of the office. ACT has been shown to reduce that worry and rumination.

Introduce skills that can be practiced in every area of life

The skills from ACT are not just for the workplace, they can be applied to every area of life including leisure time, relationships and health.

ACT can be adapted to address a variety of workplace challenges

ACT is highly flexible approach which can be combined with other workplace research to address workplace challenges such as enhancing psychological safety, preparedness for change and relating to anxiety.