Values-Based Therapy That Builds Psychological Flexibility
Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) is a values-based form of individual therapy that teaches you to hold difficult thoughts and feelings differently, so they stop controlling what you do. At Transformation Health Services, our therapists offer this approach across our Virginia Beach, Richmond, Suffolk, Fredericksburg, and Brooklyn locations for individuals navigating anxiety, depression, chronic stress, trauma, and major life transitions. Instead of trying to eliminate uncomfortable inner experiences, the work focuses on building the psychological flexibility to act in line with your values even when those experiences are present.
What is Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)?
ACT is a third-wave cognitive-behavioral therapy developed by Steven Hayes and grounded in research on how human language and thought create suffering. This approach does not try to change the content of your thoughts. It changes your relationship to them, helping you recognize that thoughts are not facts and that their presence does not determine what you do next. The model is organized around six core principles: acceptance, cognitive defusion, present-moment awareness, self-as-context, values clarification, and committed action. Together, these build psychological flexibility, the central mechanism through which symptom relief occurs.
How ACT Works
Sessions weave together experiential exercises, values-based conversation, and mindfulness practices. Here is how each element helps you heal:
1. Acceptance
You practice holding difficult thoughts and feelings without fighting them, creating space where there was previously a struggle, and reducing the energy spent on avoidance.
2. Cognitive defusion
Techniques help you observe your thoughts as mental events rather than literal truths, reducing their power to drive your behavior.
3. Present-moment awareness
Mindfulness practices build the capacity to stay grounded in what is happening now rather than being consumed by mental projection or rumination.
4. Values clarification
You identify what genuinely matters to you, not what you think you should value, but what actually animates your life, so your actions can move in that direction.
5. Committed action
Specific, concrete behavioral steps translate your values into forward movement, even in the presence of discomfort or uncertainty.
Benefits of ACT Treatment
Reduced impact of anxious or depressive thinking, not because the thoughts disappear, but because they lose their grip on your behavior
Improved capacity to tolerate uncertainty and move forward on decisions or commitments without waiting for certainty that may never come
Greater sense of direction and purpose, drawn from living in closer alignment with personal values rather than in reaction to emotional discomfort
Less avoidance of situations, relationships, and conversations, replaced with more genuine engagement with life
Meaningful reduction in anxiety, depression, and stress-related symptoms as a natural result of reduced experiential avoidance
Who Can Benefit from ACT?
Acceptance and commitment therapy is effective across a wide range of presentations and is particularly well-suited for individuals who want to build a different relationship with their inner life rather than just reduce symptoms. It is commonly a strong fit for people who:
- Are dealing with anxiety, depression, or chronic stress and have found that trying to manage or eliminate difficult feelings has not produced lasting relief
- Feel stuck in patterns of avoidance, avoiding situations, relationships, or experiences because of the discomfort they produce
- Are navigating a major life transition or loss and struggling to move forward without knowing what comes next
- Want to live more intentionally and in closer alignment with their values, rather than reactively in response to emotion
- Have tried other cognitive approaches and found that challenging their thoughts did not produce the shift they were looking for
Your therapist at Transformation Health Services will assess your fit during an initial consultation at one of our Virginia Beach, Richmond, Suffolk, Fredericksburg, or Brooklyn locations.
The ACT Experience at Transformation Health Services
Step 1: Initial assessment
Your therapist takes time to understand your current concerns, history, and goals, and explains how this framework addresses them. Together, you decide whether this approach is the right fit.
Step 2: Foundational work
Early sessions introduce the core processes, including acceptance, defusion, and present-moment awareness, through exercises and conversations that begin to build psychological flexibility.
Step 3: Values clarification and action planning
As the foundation is established, sessions shift to identifying what genuinely matters to you and developing committed action steps that move your life in that direction.
Integration and ongoing practice
Later sessions apply the framework to the specific challenges in your life, with your therapist supporting you in maintaining progress and deepening your practice over time.
Why Choose Transformation Health Services for ACT?
Experienced clinicians trained in this approach
Our therapists deliver this model with the flexibility and clinical sensitivity it requires to be genuinely useful.
A values-first orientation
Treatment at Transformation Health Services keeps your values at the center. The work is always in service of the life you want to build, not just the symptoms you want to reduce.
Integrates naturally with other modalities
This approach can be combined with DBT, trauma-focused work, or other services available in our practice for clients whose clinical picture calls for more than one approach.
Available across five locations
Sessions are offered at our Virginia Beach, Richmond, Suffolk, Fredericksburg, and Brooklyn offices, with telehealth available for clients throughout Virginia and New York.
Frequently Asked Questions
Cognitive behavioral therapy aims to change the content of distorted thoughts, challenging them and replacing them with more accurate alternatives. Acceptance and commitment therapy does not attempt to change the content of thoughts. It changes your relationship to them, helping you hold them more lightly so they have less influence over your behavior.
This approach has strong research support for anxiety disorders, including generalized anxiety, social anxiety, panic disorder, and health anxiety. It addresses the core driver of most anxiety presentations, which is experiential avoidance, rather than just managing symptoms.
This therapy can be delivered as a short-term, focused intervention or a longer course of treatment, depending on your goals and presentation. Many people experience meaningful change within 8 to 16 sessions.
It can be an effective component of trauma treatment, particularly for addressing the avoidance and suppression that sustain trauma symptoms. For complex or acute trauma, it is often combined with or preceded by more specifically trauma-focused work such as EMDR or trauma-focused CBT.
Ready to Take the Next Step?
If your family is ready to focus on where you want to go and build on what you already do well, Transformation Health Services is here to help. Contact us to schedule a consultation at any of our locations in Virginia Beach, Richmond, Suffolk, Fredericksburg, or Brooklyn.
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