ACT Therapists Chicago
Looking for ACT therapists in Chicago? Hoping to find someone who offers Acceptance and Commitment Therapy as part of their approach to counseling? Have you heard positive things about ACT and want to give it a try?
If so, you have come to the right place. Our Chicago ACT therapists enjoy helping clients just like you experience the many benefits that can accompany this kind of counseling.
What is ACT?
Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) is a form of counseling first developed in 1986 by Steven Hayes and is commonly used as part of a comprehensive treatment approach for several life challenges.
An offshoot of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), ACT is focused on helping people develop and strengthen psychological flexibility while accepting their thoughts, feelings, and emotions.
A core feature of ACT is to not judge or shame yourself. Instead, the goal is to create space for meaningful change that is linked to the values you hold important.
By improving your emotional regulation through mindfulness and values clarification, you can better manage difficult feelings, break through limiting beliefs, and live a more meaningful, happy, and fulfilling life.
At the Calm Anxiety Clinic, several of our counselors use ACT to help clients stay on target with personal wellness goals.
ACT Therapy Video
To help you better understand ACT, here is a short video for you to watch that is designed to enhance your understanding of this kind of therapy.
ACT Therapy Basics
At its core, ACT therapists lean into a variety of strategies as part of helping you. These strategies include mindfulness, metaphors, diffusion techniques, and other strategies that are designed to help you dial down anxiety and self-criticism while increasing self-esteem.
If you are struggling with emotional pain from the past and can’t seem to work through it, ACT may be a powerful therapeutic approach to help bring you to a place of change. There are six core principles of ACT.
Six Core Functions
The six core functions of ACT are as follows:
1. Acceptance
ACT emphasizes the importance of accepting one’s thoughts, feelings, and experiences as they are, without trying to change or avoid them. This function involves letting go of the struggle to control or eliminate difficult experiences, and instead, learning to coexist with them in a more flexible way.
Example: Imagine a person with social anxiety who avoids social situations because they feel anxious and uncomfortable around others. Acceptance in ACT would involve acknowledging and accepting that social anxiety is a part of their experience, and that it’s okay to feel anxious in social situations.
2. Cognitive Defusion
This function involves learning to step back from and observe one’s thoughts, rather than getting caught up in them. By creating distance from their thoughts, individuals can see them as just thoughts, rather than as an accurate representation of reality.
Example: An individual with depression may have a thought such as “I’m worthless.” Cognitive defusion in ACT would involve recognizing that this thought is just a thought, and not necessarily a reflection of their true worth as a person.
3. Mindfulness
Mindfulness involves being present in the moment, non-judgmentally observing one’s thoughts, feelings, and experiences. In ACT, mindfulness is used to help individuals develop greater awareness of their inner experience, and to help them stay present with difficult experiences, rather than trying to avoid or distract from them.
Example: A person experiencing chronic pain may use mindfulness to bring their attention to the present moment, and to observe their pain without judgment or resistance.
4. Self-As-Context
This function involves recognizing that one’s sense of self is not limited to their thoughts, feelings, and experiences, but is a larger context in which those experiences occur. By separating oneself from their experiences, individuals can develop a more flexible sense of self that is less defined by their internal experiences.
Example: An individual with low self-esteem may use self-as-context in ACT to recognize that their self-worth is not defined solely by their thoughts or feelings, but is a larger context that includes their values, relationships, and actions.
5. Values
In ACT, values are defined as qualities of being that are important and meaningful to an individual. By clarifying and committing to their values, individuals can move towards a more fulfilling life, even in the presence of difficult experiences.
Example: A person with depression may identify their values as being a good friend, a supportive family member, and a dedicated employee. By committing to these values, they can take actions towards being more present and engaged in their relationships and work, even when they don’t feel like it.
6. Committed Action
Committed action involves taking action towards one’s values, even in the presence of difficult thoughts, feelings, and experiences. In ACT, committed action is seen as a way to create a more meaningful and fulfilling life, even in the face of challenges and setbacks.
Example: An individual with social anxiety may take committed action by attending a social event, even if they feel anxious and uncomfortable. By staying committed to their values of being a good friend or family member, they can take actions towards those values, even when it’s difficult.
How ACT Empowers
One of the best parts of ACT therapy is that you are largely in charge of the process. Once you identify the personal obstacles that have been holding you back, you are taught how to move through them with a different line of thinking.
Additionally, ACT has a large commitment component, meaning that once you decide to work on an issue, you take concrete steps to generate change. This isn’t to say that action steps can’t be changed – they can be. But in the general sense, ACT is all about coaching and change.
ACT works well with issues like anger management, poor self-esteem, getting out of a rut, addictions, irrational thinking, and emotional regulation.
Life Change and ACT
When you are looking for ACT therapists in Chicago, you are likely to find counselors who offer a blend of cognitive behavior therapy and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy.
In many ways, this makes sense because ACT works with different CBT approaches for individual counseling. This includes DBT or dialectical behavior therapy.
Benefits of ACT
There are many benefits that you may experience as part of taking part in counseling with one of our Chicago ACT therapists. These include:
- Greater emotional regulation.
- Increased mindfulness skills.
- Stronger psychological flexibility.
- An ability to engage in self-compassion.
- Stronger insight into your personal values.
- Healthier relationships in all life areas.
- Reduced anxiety and calmer living.
- Having a new set of coping tools.
ACT Is Interactive
If you are looking for interactive counseling, ACT therapy is a very good way to make that happen. Unlike other forms of counseling where you simply talk and the psychologist listens, ACT therapists ask questions and encourage you to think deeper.
Additionally, you can use talk therapy with your counselor to clarify thoughts and identify thinking patterns that may not be accurate or healthy. In many ways, ACT borrows from life coaching models where interaction is expected.
Our Chicago ACT Therapists Would Like To Help You
Feel free to head on over to our contact page. ACT may truly be the type of therapy you are looking for!