What if the goal of better mental wellbeing wasn’t to get rid of every difficult thought or uncomfortable feeling?

For many people, that can feel like a strange idea. When anxiety, stress, self-doubt or unwanted thoughts appear, our natural reaction can be to fight them, suppress them, distract ourselves or try to make them disappear.

Sometimes, however, the struggle with difficult thoughts and feelings can become part of the problem.

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) takes a different approach. Rather than teaching you to eliminate difficult thoughts and emotions, ACT helps you change your relationship with them so they have less control over your behaviour.

The central idea is psychological flexibility: the ability to stay present, make room for difficult internal experiences and continue taking meaningful action based on what matters to you.

At Mindfuel Coaching, ACT-informed support can help you explore this approach and develop practical ways of responding differently to difficult thoughts, emotions and life experiences, whether you’re based in Nottingham or working online anywhere in the UK.

What is Acceptance and Commitment Therapy?

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, usually shortened to ACT and pronounced “act”, is a form of behavioural therapy that combines acceptance, mindfulness, values and behaviour-change strategies.

The aim isn’t simply to make you feel better in the moment.

Instead, ACT focuses on helping you develop the psychological flexibility to respond to life’s challenges in a more useful way.

The American Psychological Association describes psychological flexibility as being able to stay in contact with the present moment while changing or persisting in behaviour in ways that serve your chosen values. (American Psychological Association⁠

)

This distinction is important.

ACT does not suggest that difficult emotions are bad or that you should simply accept everything that happens to you. Acceptance in ACT means becoming more willing to experience thoughts and feelings without automatically allowing them to dictate what you do next.

Why trying to control your thoughts doesn’t always work

Imagine you wake up thinking:

“I’m going to have a terrible day.”

You might immediately try to push the thought away.

Then another thought appears:

“Why am I thinking like this?”

You try harder not to think about it.

Before long, you are spending a significant amount of mental energy trying not to think about something.

This is an example of how our relationship with thoughts can sometimes become more important than the thought itself.

ACT uses a process called cognitive defusion to help people notice thoughts as thoughts rather than automatically treating them as facts.

Instead of:

“I’m going to fail.”

You might learn to recognise:

“I’m noticing the thought that I’m going to fail.”

The situation has not necessarily changed, but your relationship with the thought has.

That small shift can create more space between what your mind is saying and how you choose to respond.

What is psychological flexibility?

Psychological flexibility is at the heart of ACT.

It doesn’t mean being positive all the time, never becoming anxious or always feeling confident.

Instead, it means being able to respond to difficult experiences without becoming completely controlled by them.

A psychologically flexible person might feel anxious before doing something important and still choose to do it.

They might experience self-doubt and still apply for the job.

They might feel uncomfortable having a difficult conversation and still have it because the relationship matters to them.

They might experience sadness while continuing to engage with the people and activities that give their life meaning.

In other words:

Psychological flexibility is not about controlling everything you feel. It is about having more freedom over what you do next.

A major 2024 systematic review and meta-analysis examined 67 unique studies involving more than 9,000 participants. It found that ACT interventions were associated with increases in psychological flexibility and reductions in psychological inflexibility, with these changes linked to reductions in psychological distress. (PubMed⁠

)

The six core processes of ACT

ACT is often explained through six interconnected processes. Together, they help develop psychological flexibility.

1. Acceptance

Acceptance means making space for difficult thoughts, emotions and sensations rather than automatically trying to eliminate them.

This doesn’t mean liking an experience or agreeing that something is okay.

It means recognising what is happening internally and reducing the unnecessary struggle against it.

For example, instead of spending the entire day trying to suppress anxiety, you might learn to notice the anxiety, allow it to be present and continue with something meaningful.

2. Cognitive defusion

Cognitive defusion helps you step back from your thoughts.

We often experience thoughts as if they are facts:

“I’m useless.”

“Nobody likes me.”

“I can’t cope.”

ACT helps you notice these as mental events rather than absolute truths.

You don’t necessarily need to argue with every negative thought. You can learn to observe it without automatically following it.

3. Being present

ACT incorporates mindfulness and encourages greater awareness of what is happening in the present moment.

Instead of becoming completely absorbed in what happened yesterday or what might happen tomorrow, you can practise noticing what is happening right now.

This can include your surroundings, physical sensations, emotions and thoughts.

4. Self-as-context

This can sound complicated, but the basic idea is relatively simple.

You are not identical to every thought, feeling or experience that passes through your mind.

You can notice thoughts without becoming the thought.

You can experience anxiety without defining yourself as an anxious person.

You can experience failure without deciding that you are a failure.

This perspective can create psychological distance from difficult experiences.

5. Values

ACT places significant emphasis on personal values.

Values are not simply goals.

A goal might be to get a promotion.

A value might be contributing, learning or building a meaningful career.

A goal can be achieved and completed. Values are ongoing directions that can guide how you want to live.

ACT can help you identify what genuinely matters to you rather than simply living according to fear, avoidance, other people’s expectations or automatic habits.

6. Committed action

The final process is turning values into action.

Knowing what matters is useful, but meaningful change generally requires behaviour.

Committed action involves taking practical steps in the direction of your values, even when uncomfortable thoughts or feelings appear along the way.

This might mean setting boundaries, reconnecting with people, returning to activities you value, having a difficult conversation or taking a step towards a personal goal.

What can ACT therapy help with?

ACT has been studied across a wide range of psychological and behavioural difficulties.

Research has examined its use for conditions including anxiety, depression, stress and obsessive-compulsive and related disorders. Reviews of the evidence have found support for ACT in anxiety disorders and some related conditions, although the strength of evidence varies depending on the specific problem. (APA Dictionary⁠

)

More recent research also continues to examine ACT for depression. A 2025 meta-analysis of 13 randomised controlled trials involving 1,362 people with depression found that ACT was associated with improvements in depressive symptoms, anxiety and psychological flexibility compared with control conditions. However, the researchers rated the certainty of evidence from very low to moderate depending on the outcome, which is an important reason to avoid presenting ACT as a guaranteed treatment. (PubMed⁠

)

ACT may therefore be particularly interesting for people who find themselves caught in cycles of:

• Overthinking

• Avoiding situations because of anxiety

• Harsh self-criticism

• Worry about the future

• Trying to suppress unwanted thoughts

• Procrastination driven by uncomfortable emotions

• Feeling stuck despite knowing what they want to change

• Living according to other people’s expectations

• Struggling to take action because of fear or self-doubt

ACT is not about promising that these experiences will disappear.

It is about developing different ways of responding to them.

ACT for anxiety and overthinking

Anxiety often encourages avoidance.

If something makes you anxious, avoiding it can provide immediate relief.

The problem is that avoidance can sometimes make the situation feel even more threatening in the future.

For example, someone who feels anxious about social situations might repeatedly avoid them. The immediate anxiety may decrease, but the person can become increasingly convinced that social situations are something they cannot handle.

ACT can help people notice the urge to avoid without automatically acting on it.

The aim is not to force yourself into situations regardless of your wellbeing. Instead, it is about learning to distinguish between actions that genuinely protect you and actions that simply keep your life smaller because anxiety is making the decisions.

ACT isn’t about “just accepting” everything

One common misunderstanding is that ACT means putting up with difficult circumstances.

It doesn’t.

Acceptance applies primarily to your internal experience: thoughts, feelings, sensations and memories that you may not be able to control directly.

You can accept that you feel angry while still deciding to change an unhealthy relationship.

You can accept that you feel nervous while still applying for a new job.

You can accept sadness while still seeking support.

Acceptance and action work together.

The purpose of acceptance is not to make you passive. It is to create enough psychological space to choose your response more deliberately.

How ACT differs from traditional approaches to negative thinking

Some forms of therapy place significant emphasis on examining and challenging the accuracy of thoughts.

ACT takes a different perspective.

Rather than asking only:

“Is this thought true?”

ACT may also ask:

“What happens when I become caught up in this thought?”

And:

“If I didn’t have to get rid of this thought first, what would I choose to do?”

This can be particularly useful when people have spent years trying to reason their way out of anxiety, self-doubt or unwanted thoughts.

Sometimes the objective isn’t to win an argument with your mind.

It’s to stop allowing every thought to decide what happens next.

Is ACT therapy right for everyone?

No single therapeutic approach is right for everyone.

ACT is one evidence-based psychological approach, but the most appropriate support depends on the individual, their circumstances and what they are experiencing.

For people experiencing significant mental health difficulties, particularly where there is risk of harm or a complex clinical situation, professional healthcare support is important.

NICE recommends evidence-based psychological interventions for anxiety disorders and provides specific treatment recommendations depending on the condition and severity. ACT should not be presented as a replacement for NHS care, medication or specialist psychological treatment where those are clinically indicated. (Nice⁠

)

Finding ACT therapy in Nottingham or online UK

You don’t have to wait until you feel completely overwhelmed before exploring how you relate to your thoughts, emotions and behaviours.

ACT can provide a practical framework for understanding why certain patterns keep repeating and exploring what you want to do differently.

At Mindfuel Coaching, ACT-based support is available in Nottingham and online across the UK.

Whether you’re struggling with overthinking, anxiety, self-doubt, avoidance or simply feeling stuck in a pattern that no longer works for you, ACT can offer a different way of looking at change.

The aim isn’t to build a life without difficult thoughts or feelings.

It’s to build the skills and flexibility to live a meaningful life even when difficult thoughts and feelings show up.

If you’re interested in exploring ACT therapy in Nottingham or online ACT support anywhere in the UK, get in touch with Mindfuel Coaching to discuss how the approach could fit your goals