Acceptance and Commitment Therapy is not about getting rid of difficult thoughts and feelings. It is about changing your relationship with them — so that you can move toward the life that matters to you, even when discomfort is part of the journey.
What Is Acceptance & Commitment Therapy?
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is an evidence-based, mindfulness-informed psychotherapy developed by psychologist Steven C. Hayes in the 1980s. It blends acceptance and mindfulness strategies with commitment and behavioural change — helping people build the psychological flexibility needed to live a meaningful life, even in the presence of pain.
Rather than fighting difficult thoughts and feelings or trying to control them, ACT teaches you to make space for them, to see them clearly for what they are, and to choose your actions based on what you actually value — not on what your anxiety, shame, or self-criticism is telling you to do.
At Newmarket Therapy Centre, ACT is used as a standalone approach and in combination with other modalities — including CBT, EFT, and IFS — depending on your needs.
The Six Core Processes of ACT
ACT is built around six interrelated processes — each of which helps cultivate psychological flexibility. Together they support a more open, present, and values-aligned way of being.
Acceptance
Making room for difficult thoughts, feelings, and sensations — rather than fighting, avoiding, or being controlled by them. Acceptance is not resignation; it is openness to what is actually here, so it no longer has to run the show.
Cognitive Defusion
Learning to step back from thoughts and see them as thoughts — passing mental events, not literal truth. The grip of self-critical, anxious, or catastrophic thinking loosens when you can observe rather than fuse with it.
Being Present
Cultivating contact with the present moment, with your full attention and awareness. So much of suffering happens in remembered pasts and imagined futures. Being here, now, is a skill that changes everything.
Self-as-Context
Connecting with the part of you that is the observer of experience — the witnessing self that has been here through everything you have lived, and is more than any thought, feeling, or story about yourself.
Values Clarification
Identifying what genuinely matters to you — not what you think should matter, or what others want for you, but what you actually want to stand for in your relationships, work, and life.
Committed Action
Taking concrete, values-aligned steps in the real world — even when discomfort is present. ACT is action-oriented: psychological flexibility shows up in what you do, not just what you understand.
ACT does not promise to make your difficult feelings go away. It promises something better: a life that is workable and meaningful, with all of you in it — not just the comfortable parts.
Newmarket Therapy CentreHow ACT Works at Newmarket Therapy Centre
ACT at Newmarket Therapy Centre is collaborative and experiential. You will not just learn ACT concepts — you will practise them, in session and between sessions, until they begin to shift how you actually live.
- 01
Understanding what is keeping you stuck
Your therapist helps you map the patterns of avoidance, fusion with difficult thoughts, and disconnection from values that have been quietly running your life. This is done with curiosity, not judgment.
- 02
Building acceptance and defusion skills
Through experiential exercises, mindfulness practice, and metaphor, you build the capacity to make room for difficult inner experience without being controlled by it.
- 03
Clarifying what genuinely matters
Together you clarify your values — the directions you want your life to move in, the kind of person you want to be in your relationships, work, and self-relationship.
- 04
Taking values-aligned action
Therapy supports you in taking concrete steps — sometimes small, sometimes substantial — that align with your values, even when discomfort is present. The shift happens in the doing.
The Benefits of ACT
ACT has a robust evidence base across a wide range of presentations, with particular strength for anxiety, depression, chronic pain, and conditions where suffering has become tangled with avoidance.
- Reduced impact of difficult thoughts and feelings
- Greater psychological flexibility and resilience
- Clearer sense of what genuinely matters to you
- Reduced avoidance and increased meaningful action
- Improved mood and reduced symptoms of anxiety and depression
- Better tolerance of uncertainty and discomfort
- Increased present-moment awareness and mindfulness
- Skills that continue working long after therapy ends
- Effective for chronic pain and long-standing difficulties
- Suitable as a standalone or integrative approach
What ACT Is Used For
ACT has strong evidence across a wide range of presentations — and is particularly valuable when difficult experiences are unlikely to fully disappear, but a richer life is still possible.
ACT at Newmarket Therapy Centre
Our Registered Psychotherapists and Social Workers at Newmarket Therapy Centre are trained in ACT and use it as part of an integrative, personalised approach to care. ACT is available for individuals, couples, and adolescents.
Sessions are available in person at Newmarket Therapy Centre or online for clients anywhere in Ontario. If you are unsure whether ACT is right for you, our Client Care Manager Susan will help you find the right fit.
Ready to Get Started?
Our intake team is here to answer your questions and match you with the right ACT-trained therapist at Newmarket Therapy Centre. No commitment required.