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What is Acceptance and Commitment Therapy?

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, or ACT therapy, is a type of psychotherapy developed in the 1980s by psychologist Steven Hayes. Compared to other types of therapy, it’s more action-oriented and has roots in traditional behavior therapy and cognitive-behavioral therapy. ACT is meant to teach the client to accept instead of deny, avoid, or struggle with their feelings, which are normal and appropriate responses to any situation, experience, thought, etc. Aside from acceptance, ACT is also meant to provide them with the information and tools they need to care for their well-being. 

ACT nowadays is used to treat mental and physical conditions such as chronic pain/stress, substance use/eating disorders, psychosis, OCD, depression, and anxiety. 

Aside from the approach mentioned above, what makes ACT different from other types of therapy is the goal to have the client develop the following core processes:

• Acceptance: The client must learn to allow and accept any negative thoughts/feelings to happen without denying or changing them. 
• Cognitive Defusion: The client must learn to use the techniques of changing how they react to their thoughts/feelings from negative and harmful to more positive and beneficial to their wellbeing.
• Being Present/Mindfulness: The client must learn to be present and observe any events/thoughts without judging or wanting to change them.
• Self as Context: The client must understand and accept that they are not defined by what happens to them, and they are not their thoughts, experiences, and emotions. 
• Values: The client must be able to determine the values they strive to live for.
• Committed Action: The client must be able to take the steps needed to change their life for the better using the tools provided by the practitioner to change amidst difficult situations, experiences, and thoughts. 

Accepting and Commitment Therapy or ACT sessions and exercises are usually conducted by mental health professionals with ACT training, like licensed and experienced therapists, psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, and counselors. 

How to use the Vitality vs. Suffering ACT Worksheet:

Access and Download the Template

Access and download a digital and printable version of the Vitality vs. Suffering ACT Worksheet by doing either of the following: 

• Clicking the “Use the Template or “Download Template” button
• Searching “Vitality vs. Suffering ACT Worksheet” in the search bar on Carepatron’s template library in the website or app

Explain the Template

Even if the template has straightforward and simple instructions, it’s best to go over the different sections with your client so they can better understand how to fill out the worksheet. Feel free to use the sample template here as a guide when explaining. 

It’s also helpful to set a date for the next session since the exercise is meant to be done between the current and next session. 

Fill the Template

You may provide them with a copy when they’ve understood how to fill it out. You may remind them that there are no rules, and they may write down their answers even if it’s not in sentence or paragraph form. Furthermore, you may also remind them that they may contact you if they have any further clarifications. 

Securely Store

When they come back, and you’re finished discussing their answers on the worksheet, it’s best to securely store their worksheet at a secure physical location or right on Carepatron, a HIPAA-compliant EHR.

Vitality vs. Suffering ACT Worksheet Example

We created a sample of a filled-out Vitality vs. Suffering ACT Worksheet available for download as a PDF file that you may use as a guide or educational resource. However, note that the answers in the example are fictional. 

Grab an offline sample copy by viewing it below or clicking the “Download Example PDF” button.

Download this Vitality vs. Suffering ACT Worksheet Example:

When would you use this Vitality vs. Suffering ACT Worksheet?

Practitioners, specifically licensed and experienced mental health professionals with additional training in ACT, like therapists, social workers, psychiatrists, psychologists, and counselors, can use this Vitality vs. Suffering when they have clients who:

• Are going through a tough time
• Have gone through challenging times but are still experiencing the repercussions of that experience
• Have shared experiences, and you’ve noticed that their reactions mainly harm their mental, physical, or emotional well-being
• Have recurring negative thoughts, emotions, sensations, or memories and usually avoid, deny, continue to struggle, or have difficulty moving on

Ultimately, however, we’ll leave it up to the referring physician’s expertise to decide exactly when they’ll ask the client to complete the worksheet, given that they know the client best and can better determine if the exercise will be effective if the client needs this particular exercise, or if they are capable of completing the worksheet. 

What are the benefits of using this Vitality vs. Suffering ACT Worksheet?

Establish Baselines for Comparison Later On

The worksheet can be used as a baseline to compare how they react to disturbing thoughts/emotions/memories/sensations before and after a treatment plan. This is helpful for practitioners because, through this document, they’ll better know if their treatment is effective and the pace at which their client is honing a particular ACT skill. 

Provides Insight 

If the worksheet is one of the first documents the practitioner asks the client to answer, it may provide insight into who the client is, their thought patterns, their environment, etc. All of these are important to forge a bond with the client and develop a treatment plan to help the client. 

Improved Self-Awareness

Since the worksheet will be answered by the client, preferably independently, because of the nature of the questions and content, it will improve the client’s self-awareness. Through the worksheet, they’ll know the type of reactions they usually have with painful emotions/thoughts/sensations/memories, learn how to accept and even, possibly, actively choose to react in a way that’s not harmful to their well-being eventually. 

Entirely Digital and Accessible 

Our Vitality vs. Suffering ACT Worksheet isn’t only free to download by the referring physician. Still, it can also be completed on any local PDF editor on any device they have on hand. To add, if the physician decides to store it on Carepatron, they and the client can easily access it wherever they have Carepatron installed. 

Why use Carepatron as your Acceptance and Commitment Therapy app?

It’s because psychiatrists, psychologists, therapists, and other mental health practitioners with ACT training use Carepatron to manage their therapy practice more efficiently. 

Those who have the desktop software and mobile-friendly app use our tools and features to automate tasks and streamline processes such as:

• Managing their Schedule: Patients can request appointments independently. With the sync feature, all approved appointments can appear on our built-in calendar and your Google/iCal calendar to be customized further by you for organization purposes. 
• Reminding Patients: You can set up a system that sends clients automated reminders via SMS and email of payments due and upcoming appointments. 
• Creating and Storing Client Information, Medical Documents, Notes, and Invoices: Besides having a patient portal where practitioners can input client details, Carepatron has a template library of editable medical documents, invoices, and SOAP notes. All these information pieces will be automatically saved on Carepatron’s secure, HIPAA-compliant storage. 
• Payment: Offer your clients easy payment options and quickly process payments on Carepatron.

Get free access to these tools that’ll help you out and more by signing up for an account on Carepatron today!