Acceptance and Commitment Therapy Overview

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is a form of behavioral therapy that includes practices of acceptance and mindfulness along with behavior-change strategies that can help in the treatment of depression. Unlike behavioral therapy which emphasizes controlling thoughts and feelings, ACT teaches strategies to observe, accept and embrace these thoughts and feelings.¹ Some have found the therapy hard to categorize as it challenges the current western psychological paradigm, preferring instead to describe it as an "existential humanistic cognitive behavioral therapy." ²