ACT Therapy

ACTherapy 

In French, it is known as acceptance and commitment therapy. This arises from cognitive and behavioral therapies (TCC), thus integrating into the 3rd wave movement, defined by Steven C. Hays (2012). With ACT we are taking a further step towards change thanks to therapeutic work which is based on the notion of mental flexibility. 

Organization of ACT therapy

This is structured in three stages and on two concepts each time:

1. Firstly, the realization and acceptance of our life, of the past, of our lived stories which make up the person we are today. Suffering or painful feelings are an integral part of these experiences. Then the principle of defusion, which allows us to consider other perspectives on different behaviors or feelings that have upset us. Symptoms then become life experiences and we seek to no longer avoid them.
2. Secondly, pay attention to the present in full awareness, understanding how we are part of it. We are no longer in this phase in the past, but in the here and now. We are no longer the helpless child, but the adult who can react. The idea here is also to refocus on oneself as a reference individual, acting in one's own environment. No longer react in relation to a situation but according to yourself.
3. The third phase focuses on the future by defining what we want to do with it. To do this, we go through the development of our values in the different areas of our life. What path would you like your social sphere to take? Who do you want to be in your family circles? How do you want to like, share, invest? What matters to you today?

Implementation of ACT

Once these are targeted, we then see how we can get closer to them. What concretely are we missing to achieve this in this way? What is stopping us from moving in this direction? There certain objectives emerge, in the short, medium and long term which significantly enact the change desired and decided by the patient. We then enter into action, the implementation (“ACT”) of what makes sense to us, while promoting the work done so far.

Throughout, the patient-therapist relationship is egalitarian, that is to say that the therapist can also be caught up in his life, by strong emotions and will surely have other values depending on his experience. And that's okay. The important thing is to be able to do something with it. To deal with the fact of suffering and not to try to no longer suffer. 

In short the act helps us realize what we have, who we are and to know what we want to do with it. Step by step, and depending on what is possible for each person, it is an approach that allows you to refocus and give the desired meaning to your existence without putting aside everything that is part of it. Existentialism, humanism and behaviorism are the inspirations throughout, for the psychotherapist, in order to guide reflection.