Acceptance & Commitment (ACT)

Healing Space Therapy offers ACT in person at our Downtown, Eglinton and St. Clair offices in Toronto, and by secure video anywhere in Ontario. Our therapists who use ACT are Registered Psychotherapists and Registered Social Workers. Each card above shows their office, their rate and whether they are taking new clients.

ACT is one of several approaches we draw on, often alongside CBT, DBT and mindfulness-based work. You do not need to have settled on ACT before you reach out. Working out whether it fits is what the free 15-minute consultation is for. You can also read about our wider trauma therapy approach.

Sessions tend to spend less time arguing with thoughts and more time changing your relationship to them — noticing a thought as a thought rather than an instruction, and seeing what becomes possible when it no longer has to be resolved first.

The other half is values: getting specific about what you actually want your life to be about, and finding the smallest workable step towards it. Often that step is taken while the anxiety is still present, which is the part that surprises people.

ACT is built around a handful of skills that work together. You will not be drilled on them, but it helps to know what your therapist is working toward.

Noticing thoughts as thoughts. A thought like “I can’t cope” can feel like a fact, or an order. ACT practises stepping back far enough to see it as something your mind is saying, which often takes the urgency out of it. Therapists call this defusion.

Making room for feelings. Instead of pushing a feeling away, or waiting for it to pass before getting on with life, you practise letting it be there while you do what matters. This is what ACT means by acceptance. It is not the same as liking it, and it is not giving up.

Coming back to the present. Short mindfulness practices help you notice where you are and what is happening now, rather than being carried off by worry about what comes next or replaying what already happened.

Values and committed action. You get clear on what you want your life to be about, in relationships, work, health and community, and then take small, specific steps in that direction, adjusting as you learn what works.

None of this asks you to think positively or pretend things are fine. It asks what would make your life feel more like yours, with the hard things included.

ACT suits people who have been fighting their own minds for a long time and are tired — who have tried to think their way out of anxiety and found the thinking is part of it.

It is useful where something cannot simply be removed: chronic illness or pain, grief, uncertainty that will not resolve. Its aim is a life that feels worth it alongside the hard thing, rather than after it.

It is also a good fit if you want something practical and skills-based, but found that challenging your thoughts head-on turned into one more argument with yourself that you could not win.

ACT has a solid evidence base across anxiety, depression, chronic pain and stress, and is one of the better-studied of the newer behavioural therapies.

We pair it with our trauma-informed way of working, so clarifying what matters never means overriding what your body is telling you.

Evidence is about averages, though, and you are not one. It is a reason to take the approach seriously, not a promise about how your own course will go, and your therapist will talk with you about that honestly.

We use ACT to help you clarify what genuinely matters to you and take workable steps toward it, even in the presence of anxiety or grief. It pairs naturally with our trauma-informed, values-led way of working.

If you're tired of fighting your own mind and want a life that feels meaningful rather than merely managed, ACT can help. We use it alongside our trauma-informed way of working, so clarifying what matters never means overriding what your body is telling you.