ACCEPTANCE AND COMMITMENT THERAPY (ACT)
ACT is a relatively new form of therapy that is related to mindfulness training in 
that a goal of this treatment is to teach people to accept their experiences (includ -
ing emotions, thoughts, imagery, and other experiences) rather than trying to control, 
ﬁght, or change them (Hayes and Smith 2005). Mindfulness training is used as part of 
ACT, but other strategies are used as well. In addition to acceptance, people receiving 
ACT are also encouraged to make a commitment to live a life that is consistent with 
their own values and goals, which typically involves changing behaviors. Though ACT 
is often presented as an alternative to CBT, it actually overlaps with CBT quite a bit. 
For example, ACT for anxiety and CBT for anxiety both use exposure as a component 
(Eifert and Forsyth 2005). A preliminary, uncontrolled study suggests that ACT may 
lead to  reductions in social anxiety (Ossman et al. 2006).