Is Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) Effective?

Is acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) effective? Heck yeah! 

But is it easy? No.

 And just so you’re oriented, ACT comes from the same behavioural family as CBT and DBT, but it works differently. 

CBT focuses on challenging thoughts, DBT adds skills for emotion regulation, and ACT takes a more practical route by teaching you how to make space for your thoughts and feelings while still moving toward what matters to you. 

Now, the clients we work with at Ashay Therapy and the therapists who know how many times we get to the point of almost throwing hands with our clients; know that acceptance and commitment therapy is easier said than done.

This is because we don’t stop at the usual advice of “sit with your thoughts” or “accept your feelings” but instead focus on the committed part of ACT, which other therapists may want to shy away from because it’s uncomfortable.

 However, the typical write a letter to burn, forgive yourself style often leaves people after doing Acceptance Commitment Therapy feeling stagnant so our clinicians sit with that friction alongside you and help you practice through it.

By the end of this post you’ll understand how ACT helps you stop fighting your internal experience while also changing the things that matter: your actions, your relationships, your daily rhythms. 

Before you continue, you might like to join our newsletter for free. Once a month, we share practical tools to help you build psychological flexibility, clarify your values, and take committed action toward a more meaningful life.

What is Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)?

People hear the word “acceptance” and picture two things:

1. You’re being asked to “suck it up” and tolerate pain forever
2. You think it’s a tidy practice of naming feelings until things magically improve.

Neither is true.  “Acceptance” in Acceptance & Commitment Therapy is about making room for difficult feelings without letting them decide your day. You can feel sadness, frustration, or fear and still move toward what matters most.

ACT has six practical, interlocking processes. Here’s what they mean in everyday terms with examples:

• Notice Yourself From a Distance

See your thoughts as thoughts rather than absolute truths.

Example: You hear “I’ll mess this up” and notice the sentence without turning it into an instruction.

• Develop Psychological Flexibility 

With ACT, if you haven’t developed those skills growing up, you learn how to develop psychological flexibility. 

You will learn how to separate yourself from unhelpful thoughts so they lose their grip.

Example: You might tell yourself, “I need to be fixed before anyone can love me.”

ACT uncovers that story, helps you build psychological flexibility so your life moves toward connection despite fear.

• Make Room For Your Feelings

You don’t have to like the emotion or act on it.

Example: Feeling jealous of a colleague’s promotion but allowing the feeling to exist while planning actions that align with your career goals.

• Focus on the Present Moment

Being present helps you notice what matters and what you can control.

If it’s uncontrollable, why is it stressful? Often, stress comes from internal rules like “I must always be perfect” or avoidance patterns. 

ACT helps you accept what’s outside your control while clarifying actionable steps. That might mean setting micro-boundaries, delegating tasks, or reprioritizing work to match your values.

• Clarify What Truly Matters

As we live in a society that idealizes goals, ACT is like a compass for your own life where you’re living based on what matters the most to you, and that is more fulfilling than chasing after fleeting goals like happiness. This is value work and helps you identify who you want to be in relationships, at work, or in life.

Example: If connection is important, you might reach out to a friend even when you fear rejection.

• Take Action Toward Your Values

This is the committed action piece. It is behavioral, measurable, and what we emphasize the most at Ashay Therapy Services in Calgary. The magic of acceptance and commitment therapy happens here when both the acceptance and commitment parts are emphasized at the same time.

Is Acceptance and Commitment the Right Therapy For Me?

People who consistently use Acceptance and Commitment Therapy notice:

• That they are less reactive and remember that they have choices in stressful moments
• Clearer alignment between who they are and what they do
• Increased confidence from repeated small successes
• Better relationships because actions are values-driven, not avoidance-driven

A richer emotional life that can hold grief and joy at the same time

Frequently Asked Questions About Acceptance Commitment Therapy

One of the tools we use with clients all the time is the idea of toward moves and away moves. It’s simple and clarifying.

• Toward moves are actions that bring you closer to your values. They are often uncomfortable at first, but create forward momentum.

   

• Away moves are actions that protect you from discomfort in the short term but reduce your options for a meaningful life in the long term.

   

Examples:

• Toward move: Say “no” to one extra social obligation so you can rest and show up for the people you truly care about.

   

• Away move: Say “yes” to everything to avoid the guilt of disappointing someone, then feel resentful and exhausted.

   

• Toward move: Apply to one job that scares you.

   

• Away move: Keep your resume unchanged because imagining rejection is too painful.

   

During therapy, we help you name the move, notice how it feels in your body, and then choose. That naming and choosing is both clarifying and liberating. It stops you from deluding yourself with good-sounding intentions that go nowhere.

Tonya Ngo, our practicum therapist, runs low-cost, ACT-informed sessions designed for individuals and BIPOC persons like you who are ready to move from understanding to doing. 

🧡 Book A Free Consult With Tonya