ACT for Anxiety: How Acceptance Can Reduce Worry
ACT for Anxiety
How Acceptance Can Reduce Worry
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) | Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) | Mindfulness-Based Therapy
If you have been searching for anxiety therapy, you may have come across Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). It’s a different kind of approach from those that aim to eliminate anxious thoughts. ACT teaches you to change your relationship with worry so that you are making room for difficult feelings while still moving toward a life that matters to you. Research consistently supports ACT as an effective treatment for anxiety disorders.
What Is Acceptance and Commitment Therapy?
ACT is a type of cognitive behavioral therapy that focuses on six core psychological processes: acceptance, cognitive defusion, present-moment awareness, self-as-context, values clarification, and committed action (Hayes et al., 2006). The goal is psychological flexibility, which is the ability to stay open to experience and act in alignment with your values even when you’re feeling anxious.
Why “Acceptance” Doesn’t Mean Giving Up
Acceptance does not mean resignation. In ACT, acceptance means willingly making room for uncomfortable thoughts and feelings rather than fighting them. Research shows that when you suppress or avoid anxiety, it makes things worse over time (Hayes et al., 1996). This is called experiential avoidance. When you stop struggling against worry and instead observe it with curiosity, things can change.
Here’s a defusion exercise: instead of thinking “I am anxious,” you can practice noticing the thought by shifting your narrative to “I am having the thought that I am anxious.” This creates psychological distance and reduces the thought’s influence on your behavior (Luoma et al., 2007).
What the Research Says
ACT has shown to be effective to treat generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), which is characterized by persistent, hard-to-control worry. It also works as well on social anxiety, panic disorder, and health anxiety. Because ACT targets the underlying process of psychological inflexibility rather than disorder-specific content, it has been proven to be effective for all types of presentations of anxiety.
Core ACT Skills for Managing Worry
An ACT-trained therapist may guide you through practices such as:
• Mindful observation – Noticing anxious thoughts and sensations without judgment by staying grounded in present-moment awareness.
• Defusion techniques – Creating distance from unhelpful thought patterns so that they don’t influence your behaviors.
• Values clarification – Identifying what truly matters to you so anxiety doesn’t rule your choices.
• Committed action – Taking steps toward meaningful goals even when affected by fear or worry.
Finding ACT Therapy in California
Whether you are based in San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley, San Jose, or anywhere in the Bay Area, ACT-informed therapy is available in both in-person and telehealth formats. Telehealth therapy has expanded access significantly, meaning you can work with a qualified ACT therapist from the comfort of your home while staying in California.
Ready to Take the Next Step?
Anxiety does not have to run your life. ACT offers a well-researched path toward living more fully—not by eliminating worry, but by changing what you do when it shows up. If you are interested in exploring ACT therapy for anxiety in the Bay Area, we invite you to reach out to schedule a consultation.
References
A-Tjak, J. G. L., Davis, M. L., Morina, N., Powers, M. B., Smits, J. A. J., & Emmelkamp, P. M. G. (2015). A meta-analysis of the efficacy of acceptance and commitment therapy for clinically relevant mental and physical health problems. Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, 84(1), 30–36. https://doi.org/10.1159/000365764
Hacker, T., Stone, P., & MacBeth, A. (2016). Acceptance and commitment therapy: Do we know enough? Cumulative and sequential meta-analyses of randomized controlled trials. Journal of Affective Disorders, 190, 551–565. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jad.2015.10.053
Hayes, S. C., Luoma, J. B., Bond, F. W., Masuda, A., & Lillis, J. (2006). Acceptance and commitment therapy: Model, processes and outcomes. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 44(1), 1–25. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brat.2005.06.006
Hayes, S. C., Wilson, K. G., Gifford, E. V., Follette, V. M., & Strosahl, K. (1996). Experiential avoidance and behavioral disorders: A functional dimensional approach to diagnosis and treatment. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 64(6), 1152–1168. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-006X.64.6.1152
Luoma, J. B., Hayes, S. C., & Walser, R. D. (2007). Learning ACT: An acceptance and commitment therapy skills-training manual for therapists. New Harbinger Publications.
Ready to get started with individual therapy in the Bay Area?
mindfulSF offers individual therapy in San Francisco, Oakland, and throughout the Bay Area for anxiety, OCD, depression, trauma, job stress, parenting and more. Online services also offered across California.