Principles Of ACT: How To Become Psychologically Flexible & Thrive With Acceptance & Commitment Therapy

When faced with life’s challenges, it’s easy to lose track of what’s important and get stuck in your thoughts and emotions. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is a modern approach to living that teaches you how to be flexible and take committed action towards what you care about, even in the face of obstacles.

In this course, Diana Hill breaks down ACT into its 6 core processes (Being Present, Values, Acceptance, Cognitive Defusion, Perspective Taking, and Committed Action) and teaches you short practices to try on for yourself. This workshop is didactic, experiential and offers writing exercises to apply the principles of ACT to your life.

Leçon 1: What Is Psychological Flexibility?

In this session, you will learn what psychological flexibility is and why it’s important to become more psychologically flexible. Diana will walk you through the six core processes involved in psychological flexibility and introduce you to Acceptance and Commitment Therapy.

Leçon 2: Being Present

In ACT, being present is about bringing your full self into the present moment, when it matters most. In this session, Diana explores where and with whom you want to be more present in your life and walks you through a "being present" practice that you can apply to your daily life.

Leçon 3: Values

Values are qualities of action that are personally chosen by you and give your life meaning and purpose. In this session, Diana will ask you some intriguing questions to start to explore your values, and you will learn the choice point model of choosing values.

Leçon 4: Values Writing Exercise

Get out your pen and paper as in this session, Diana will walk you through a powerful writing exercise to explore the link between values and impermanence.

Leçon 5: Acceptance

Acceptance can be confused with a number of things including approval or acquiescence. In this session, Diana describes what acceptance is and is not in ACT, the role of avoidance in our suffering, and three strategies to accept more fully.

Leçon 6: Cognitive Defusion

ACT takes a different approach to difficult thoughts. Instead of trying to suppress thoughts or replacing them, you will learn how to defuse them. In this session, Diana teaches you some creative ways to get a little space from your thoughts.

Leçon 7: Perspective Taking

In this session, Diana teaches you how to step back from your self-story and get a little more flexible with it. You will learn why perspective-taking is so important and some simple strategies to perspective-take on yourself and with others

Leçon 8: Perspective-Taking Exercise

Get out your pen and paper. In this session, Diana will walk you through a powerful writing exercise that will help you develop a more compassionate perspective on yourself. Bring a problem that you are stuck in, and you will leave with a kinder, more compassionate perspective on it.

Leçon 9: Committed Action

ACT is behavioral psychology and with committed action, you can take what you have learned in the past eight days and put it into practice. In this session, you will learn how to develop values-based behavior habits.

Reviews

Great course…love the “tiny habits” tool. Thank you for sharing . ☮️💟

Thank you so much, Diana, for this very helpful introduction and I’m now working my way through your ACT Daily Journal. 🙏🏼

That was a really helpful course! I love the overlap between ACT therapy and Buddhism. Thank you!

Excellent set of tools and simple to apply. It could not have come at a better time in my life.

Lovely course, I very found it really helpful. well delivered, easy to understand and apply. Thank you very much 😊

Thank you Dr Hill, I got a lot out of your course! I enjoyed the short sessions, the reflective activities, and learning about the Researchers behind the concepts. 🌿🤍🙏

A very gentle introduction! — Maybe it would be nice to warn listeners about consulting with a therapist if the pain is too much, if the inner chatter gets too loud: the warning not to be alone when suffering. Thank you! ☺️

I appreciate this opportunity to practice ACT. I plan to listen as many times as needed to build these habits.

I just started ACT with the VA in St. Louis and stumbled across this course on the timer and it has been a wonderful adjunct to the program I’m working through with my provider. THANK YOU

Those three values questions were very pointed and clarifying. I’ve already taken action.

MP

I hope you feel empowered and fulfilled for helping people such as myself that will be determined to continue your work.

I am a couples coach and I offer retreats. I would love to introduce ACT to my couples. I feel that learning their values as a couple and sometimes as parents will intrinsically motivate them ACT. I love the YES model. Encouraging them to be generous with one another by using this YES theory will create a positive spiral in their communication.

I also love the 'push up' analogy as a Psychoeducator. Couples are finding it hard to make habits such as remembering to use softer communication or doing small erotic gestures throughout the week stick. Therefore, I am stoked to use this theory to remind them how doable this is.

Teaching these theories, values and habits will surely break negative intergenerational cycles.

Children will receive respectful and compassionate modeling which I feel is desperately needed right now.

I would love to be in touch to discuss ways to further help couples.

Please accept my gratefulness. I appreciate your work, and so will many couples in the future. I feel it will be contagious. Bravo!

Marie-Claire Thauvette
Relationship Bliss
Ottawa, Canada

Dr. Hill is warm, approachable in her presentation and very knowledgeable.

I highly recommend this course for anyone.

The course and ACT itself were so simple and well explained. I definitely have some things to try out and a positive feeling about getting started.

Amazing clarity!

A breathe of fresh air, I love the approach of accepting the fact things happen but to be kind to yourself and not let it derail you. I’ve ordered the journal, excited to continue my journey :)

Very helpful tips!! I have black and white thinking all or Nothing in mind set. I need to practice thinking more outside the box.

A solid course overall, especially for beginners. This course influenced me most by helping me identify my values and to live in a way that reflects my values.

Thank you for this course! I enjoyed learning with you! Very helpful teaching how to atchieve psychological flexibility!

The course offers very practical and sensible tips on how to be flexible with our minds. It has a positive impact on me. Thank you!

Wonderful! Very well explained and extremely promising life-improving program.

Excellent course - thank you for creating this