Dealing with change

One of the main goals of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is to increase psychological flexibility, which refers to an individual’s ability to connect with the present moment fully, as a conscious human being, and to change or persist in behavior that is in line with identified values (Hayes et al., 1999). Increasing psychological flexibility involves helping clients to disentangle themselves from the cycle of EA and cognitive fusion, not by challenging or changing their thoughts and emotions for example, but by learning to react more mindfully to such experiences, so that they no longer seem to be barriers (Ciarrochi & Blackledge, 2006). Clients are encouraged to shift their energies away from experiential control and towards valued activity, and to consistently choose to act effectively, even in the presence of difficult private events. For a detailed and comprehensive account of ACT readers are referred to Hayes et al. (Hayes et al., 1999)

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