Acceptance and Commitment Therapy

Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) is an empirically supported psychotherapy that offers promise for patients suffering from a wide range of mental and physical conditions. ACT rests on the fundamental premise that pain, grief, disappointment, illness, and anxiety are inevitable features of human life, with the therapeutic goal of helping individuals productively adapt to these types of challenges by developing greater psychological flexibility rather than engaging in counterproductive attempts to eliminate or suppress undesirable experiences. This is achieved through committed pursuit of valued life areas and directions, even in the face of the natural desire to escape or avoid painful and troubling experiences, emotions, and thoughts. ACT is transdiagnostic (applies to more than one condition), process-focused, and flexibly delivered. In a relatively short period of time, ACT has been effectively implemented across a broad range of therapeutic settings, including mental health, primary care, and specialty medical clinics.1

Organizations that describe ACT, or areas of ACT, as evidence based

1. American Psychological Association, Society of Clinical Psychology (Div. 12), Research Supported Psychological Treatments

2. SAMHSA's National Registry of Evidence-based Programs and Practices, ACT, last review July 2010. (NREPP has since been shut down, so this will not be updated unfortunately)

3. California Evidence-Based Clearinghouse for Child Welfare (click here for the report)

4. U.S. Dept of Veterans Affairs / U.S. Dept of Defense Clinical Practice Guideline for the Management of Major Depressive Disorder (click here for the 2022 report)

5. Title IV-E U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Prevention Services Clearinghouse (under review, 2021: mental health; substance use).

6. The World Health Organization - Based on several successful randomized trials it conducted with South Sudanese and Syrian war refugees, WHO also now distributes ACT-based self-help for free in 21 languages and says on its website that ACT self-help is good for “anyone who experiences stress, wherever they live, and whatever their circumstances.” (click here for the free program)

7. The UK National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE).

8. Australian Psychological Society, Evidence Based Psychological Interventions in the Treatment of Mental Disorders (2018):

9. Netherlands Institute of Psychologists: Sections of Neuropsychology and Rehabilitation, Richtlijn Neuropsychologie Revalidate (2017)

10. Netherlands National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, Rijksinstituut voor Volksgezondheid en Milieu (RIVM) (2020)

11. Sweden Association of Physiotherapists, Fysioterapi Profession och vetenskap (2016)

12. Peer reviewed assessments of the ACT evidence base: A list of meta-analyses, systematic or narrative reviews of the ACT evidence base, either overall or in specific areas, can be found here. Date of last update: January 2023. Total number = 409 In Press (N = 41)

13. Mediational analyses: ACT is a process-oriented approach and the list of studies testing mediation or moderation is quite large. As of 2019 we were aware of approximately 63 mediational studies. A partial list can be found here (a child page to this webpage).

14. Qualitative Research: Qualitative work is hard to do but it has continued throughout the ACT research program. Examples can be found here.

15. ACT Randomized Controlled Trials: Click here for details of each of these ACT RCT studies, along with links to the original research articles. As of February, 2023 there are 1,025 ACT randomized controlled trials.