ACT: Experienced avoidance and acceptance

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is an approach to understanding human functioning and psychological intervention. The central objective of the interventions proposed by the approach is to generate psychological flexibility from the application of acceptance processes and behavioral change.

The model of psychic illness is explained through psychological inflexibility, which is understood by six processes: experiential avoidance, cognitive fusion, inflexible attention, attachment to a conceptualized self, lack of contact with values and inactivity, impulsivity and avoidance Persistent.

Experienced avoidance is the attempt to control or modify the form or frequency of internal experiences: thoughts, feelings, sensations or memories. To quickly relieve malaise, strategies are used to distance themselves from uncomfortable information. In the short term, it works! The problem is that in the long run these strategies limit the behavioral repertoire of individuals, removing them from the valuable life they would like to have.

ACT proposes interventions for working with each process, promoting and restoring psychological flexibility. It aims to contact the present moment in full and conscious, allowing you to choose or follow with behaviors for a valued lifestyle and vitality.

Live life as a process to be experienced and not as a problem to be solved.

Acceptance is a way of relating to unwanted experiences alternative to experiential dodge. It is the process of allowing unwanted private events or behaviors to be there, that is, the disposition of the individual to perceive them at the present moment, without removing them or avoiding behaviors that bring them out. Acceptance occurs mainly of emotions and feelings, experiencing them open, curious and self-compassionate.

Accepting is not to adopt a passive posture. It is possible to accept the memories, thoughts, sensations and feelings that the moment arouses, while modifying its behaviors to approach its goals and values. It is being able to recognize that strategies that are used do not work or cannot work for that context. By assuming an acceptance stance, it is possible to end the struggle with thoughts and feelings without having to change or eliminate them.

Accepting is an intentionally open, receptive, flexible posture and without judgment of experience at every moment. It is a continuous opening process for life experiences.