ACT Therapy Orlando: Working with Anxiety and Eating Disorders
Orlando Therapist Discusses ACT Therapy Orlando: Working with Anxiety and Eating Disorders
Do you often find yourself rushing around in a blur without really giving your all to any part of your life just to ensure that you are getting all of the “important” things done on time? Do you feel like you need to be doing “things” in order to have a place in the world? Do you often wonder what you are even doing it all for?
As anxiety therapists in Orlando, we see a lot of clients who are living in a whirlwind of a life that is misaligned with their values. They are trying to live a life that they believe they are “supposed” to be living. The misalignment creates a disconnect between themselves and their world. It can lead to overwhelm, anxiety, and burnout.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is an option for those who want to build acceptance for what is out of their control and commit to actions that enrich their lives.
What is ACT?
ACT is a mindfulness-based behavioral therapy that encourages people to embrace their thoughts and feelings rather than fighting or feeling guilty for them.
The goal of ACT is to create a meaningful life, while accepting the pain that inevitably goes with it. It’s about taking action guided by our core values and making mindful (present and engaged) decisions.
ACT helps individuals recognize ways that their attempts to suppress, manage, and control emotional experiences create challenges. By recognizing and addressing these challenges, individuals can begin to build acceptance of their emotions and experiences through mindfulness exercises in and out of session. This shift will help individuals become more open to actions that are consistent with their core values.
How does ACT work?
There are six core processes of ACT that include the following:
Acceptance: the active choice to allow unpleasant experiences to exist, without trying to deny or change them. Acceptance is not a goal of ACT, but a method of encouraging action that will lead to positive results.*
Cognitive Defusion: the techniques intended to change how an individual reacts to their thoughts and feelings. How to face negative experiences and come out the other side with a decreased fixation on these experiences.*
Being Present: experiencing what is happening without trying to predict or change the experience.*
Self as Context: is the idea that an individual is not simply the sum of their experiences, thoughts, or emotions. There is a self outside of the current experience. We are not only what happens to us. We are the ones experiencing what happens to us.*
Values: the qualities an individual chooses to work towards in any given moment. We all hold values, consciously or unconsciously, that direct our steps.
Commit to actions: positive behavior changes cannot occur without awareness of how a given behavior affects us. Individuals choose behaviors that will assist them in their long-term goals and live a life consistent with their values.*
At Mindful Living Counseling Orlando, we use ACT with our clients who are struggling with anxiety, eating disorders, and unhealthy relationship patterns.
Why ACT?
ACT allows our clients to be who they are, appreciate their emotions for what they are (negative or positive), and it teaches them how to live an authentic and fulfilling life WITH the emotions.
It is helpful to normalize distressful emotions and bring appreciation into the moment. Anxiety, sadness, anger, or any other negative emotion is no longer seen as a deficit, but as having a purpose. There is something to learn from this emotion rather than pushing it away or ignoring it.
Anxious thoughts are keeping you safe. Sadness is showing you that you lost something valuable. Anger is telling you that there has been an injustice.
Appreciation will bring you back into the moment and provide you a safe place to process the emotions, then take an action step aligned with your values (rather than reacting to the emotion).
How does ACT help with anxiety?
Our brains are consistently sending out thoughts. It doesn’t stop. For an individual struggling with anxiety, their thoughts (specifically the negative ones), begin to depict how they interact and react to the world around them. They get hooked on the negative thoughts and begin to move away from the things that are important to them (their values).
For example, this could look like an individual avoiding hanging out with their friends because their thoughts are telling them they will be judged if they say the wrong thing. Or, for example, an individual will not apply to a promotion at work because their thoughts tell them they will be rejected because they are not good enough.
ACT teaches acceptance that these emotions exist in ourselves, to defuse, or unhook, from our thoughts and take back control of the steering wheel. This will allow us to reprioritize the things that we value in our life while continuing to honor our emotions without avoiding or denying them.
How can ACT be helpful with eating disorders?
Individuals struggling with an eating disorder need to have a sense of stability and safety in their day. Oftentimes, an individual struggling with an eating disorder will also struggle from perfectionism. Consistency is key.
Setting SMART goals can help provide stability, safety, and consistency. A SMART goal is a goal that is:
Specific: the goal states exactly what you will do.
Measurable: the goal can be tracked to view progress and success.
Attainable: the goal is possible. Expectations can be met safely.
Relevant: the goal is aligned with your values and what you feel is important.
Timely: the goal has a start and end date.
Having goals that are rooted in values allows for a base point to refer or return to when thoughts could be attempting to guide an individual to a place that is not healthy for them. The SMART goal(s) provide an opportunity to look at the thoughts with curiosity and ponder whether the thoughts are leading them away or towards their values (and goals).
How can ACT be helpful for someone that has unhealthy relationship patterns?
ACT is helpful because of its focus on values. With our clients, we can initiate conversations around building relationships with individuals who have similar values. Do you both see similar things as being important? If values differ, the conversation and journey can be focused on how a healthy relationship can be built with differing values. How can both individuals in the partnership have their values honored and respected. How can both individuals remain authentic in the relationship with differing values at play.
The LOVE Acronym can be used in ACT work and unhealthy relationships.
Letting go: a decrease in believability of, or attachment to negative thoughts or feelings.
Opening up: active awareness and acceptance of negative thoughts or feelings
Valuing: knowing your values and taking actions that honor them
Engaging: being present in the moment and aware of your experience
By using this acronym, individuals can get a better understanding of whether they are engaged with their partner and connected to their values or if they are being reactive to their partners and distancing themselves from their values.
ACT supports individuals to take back control of their emotions throughout all seasons of their lives. Living mindfully and choosing to live alongside your values will help you create a more enriched life for yourself (and those around you).
Orlando Therapists Specializing in Anxiety
Sometimes you need a little more than self-help blogs. We get that. If you’re looking for some additional support, we are here to help. We’re offering in-person and virtual appointments. Click here to find out more about counseling at Mindful Living Counseling Orlando.
Mindful Living Counseling Orlando is a trauma healing center. Our Orlando Therapy Services include anxiety therapy, trauma counseling, eating disorder recovery, teen counseling, and healing from toxic relationships. At Mindful Living Counseling Orlando, we use a down-to-earth approach infused with cutting-edge therapies that go beyond traditional talk therapy so clients can heal at the root level and experience lasting change. Feel free to access one of our Guided Meditations to help you feel settled and calm now.