Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, ACT.

Is your Life a Struggle?

Are you ready to STOP fighting internally and START Living?

Are you spending too much time sweating on the small stuff?

Are you missing out on what is happening around you right now?

Do you spend a lot of your day dwelling on the past? Thinking if things hadn’t happened, life would be different now or if only I hadn’t done that, I may have some dream life now. Or do you spend your day worrying about the future and how things will turn out. It may be five minutes into the future or it could be five years, doesn’t really matter, we don’t really know what the future holds for us until it arrives. So ACT focuses on utilising mindful skills to bring your conscious awareness into the “here and now”

Often we find ourselves lost in our thoughts, Allowing our feelings and emotions to spiral out of control. One unhelpful thought, followed by another and another, gathering momentum as they spiral down a black hole, rather than acknowledging they are our thoughts, making room for them and controlling the direction and the affects those thoughts have on our lives and therefore our bodies and our health and well-being.

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy Melbourne, commonly known as ACT is an empowering therapy framework that focuses on bringing about acceptance of what is out of your personal control and committing to action that brings about change and improves and enriches your life.

Utilising ACT you will discover that unhelpful and painful thoughts are a natural part of being human. We all have these thoughts at times. ACT teaches you many skills to deal with and release and accept these thoughts.

For example, try this some time for just a little taste of what working with an ACT Mindfully therapist will aim to guide towards. If you are experiencing an emotion that appears to be spiralling out of control or you are feeling emotion that at a time is not a suitable time to experience that emotion. Just simply stop, take a deep breath and as you slowly exhale, just notice five things around you that are red, then notice five things that are green, five things that you see, five things that you hear, five things that you feel (and they could be hot, cold, uncomfortable, feeling the places where your body touches the chair, as you can see we have lots of different ways to feel). And continue on noticing things you see, hear and feel and as you do, notice the emotion levels drop.

You are controlling your mind, your thoughts and your emotions and bringing yourself and your senses into an acute awareness of NOW. A very powerful exercise and one of many that your ACT therapist can assist you with applying to your own life and your own situation.

There are six main core principles of ACT and once you experience ACT you realise that therapy is vastly different. It is not about getting rid of bad thoughts, feelings, and traumas. Instead it is about accepting and focusing on now, rather than then and creating a rich, full and meaningful life focused on now and appreciating and accepting whatever it is that presents itself for you at that time.

If you would like some assistance and guidance discovering some ACT coping strategies and principals, then please feel free to call Cas, Heather or one of the therapists or staff at CaS Therapy today on (03) 9397 0010 to discuss how ACT can be applied to your life.