Acceptance and commitment therapy

Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT, typically pronounced as the word "act") is a form of cognitive behavioral psychotherapy that uses mindfulness to recognize one's psychological responses and be open to one's experiences and accept them, and commitment to one's core values to create a meaningful life.

ACT was developed in the 1980s by Steven C. Hayes, taking a contextualistic and holistic approach to human behaviour, arguing that human suffering is created by human language (cognition), that is, the way we create and are entangled in our subjective world, and avoid certain unpleasant feelings.

Theoretically, ACT is rooted in B. F. Skinner's philosophy of radical behaviorism and in Hayes' post-Skinnerian functional contextualism. As a therapeutic practice, ACT takes a holistic approach borrowing aspects from "the human potential movement, Eastern traditions, behavior therapy, mystical traditions, and the like".