Acceptance and Commitment Therapy seeks to help clients transform their ‘relationship’ with difficult thoughts and emotions. One of the central concepts of ACT is that many of the issues that clients present with in counselling are caused by the avoidance of internal experiences (i.e., thoughts or feelings) that are distressing or uncomfortable. ACT practitioners do not seek to eliminate or change a client’s thoughts or emotions, but instead seek to help the client view these thoughts and emotions for what they are - pieces of language and transient psychological events, not external “truths”.
This role-play demonstrates the use of counselling skills combined with Acceptance and Commitment Therapy techniques such as Join the DOTS and Leaves on a Stream to assist clients to defuse from ‘sticky’ and subjective thoughts and move towards acceptance, teaching the client the ability to observe their thoughts with an openness and curiosity and allow them to come and go rather than trying to control them.