• Helping you to identify your fundamental values.
• Develop the skills and mental tools to cope and thrive with your life challenge.

ACT can be broken down into several key elements;

Value driven living.

In ACT a value is a direction to move your life in. This could be summarized as something like ‘health’, or ‘family’. The client is then encouraged to identify whatever steps they can taken, from where they are currently in life, to improve their engagement with this value. This means that the value of ‘health’ does not mean being a certain weight, or eating 5 portions of fruit and veg, these are goals and are different. For example, the value of ‘health’ means doing more healthy things than you currently do, so if you currently average 1 portion of fruit and veg a day, how can you increase this to more than 1 portion a day?

The key with values is improvement, not specific attainment. By being aware of your life values you can start making daily decisions based on them, leading to a more meaningful life.

Acceptance of experience.

This can also be characterized as openness to experience or willingness to experience. This includes both negative and positive experience.  Acceptance is there to counter the tendency to avoid difficult experience. Avoiding difficult experience often results in us being stuck in patterns of behavior. Choosing to experience the difficulty to get through to a better place is important to help us through to freedom. To give an example, for the addicted this can mean allowing themselves to experience the sensation of craving whilst not acting upon it.

Mindfulness

Mindfulness is a meditative practice which encourages contact with the the present moment, within ACT this has a twofold use;

1. Encouraging contact with the present. It is thought that a preoccupation with the past or future locks us into pathways of behavior. To counter this ACT encourages spending more time actively in the present moment and with your experience. This enables you to be aware of that experience, without judging it, defining or categorizing it. Within ACT it is argued that all experience can be coped with on a moment by moment basis.
2. De-fusion and observer self. Within ACT it is argued that we tend to believe we are our thoughts and feelings. The practice of mindfulness allows us to adopt an ‘observer’ position. From the observer position we can perceive the information from our thoughts, feelings and body as information not as who we are, this is called de-fusion.

What does Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) help with?

ACT has demonstrable effectiveness with; depression, anxiety, substance abuse(1), social anxiety(2) and has been seen to benefit those with serious physical issues in their psychological reaction to those issues(3). All of which has led some to suggestion that it could be an alternative to the ubiquitous cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) in mainstream mental health services(4). As an alternative to CBT it has a lot to recommend it as the exercises within it feel quite different to CBT and thus it offers a different approach for those who don’t fit the CBT mold.

As a practitioner of ACT I have used it in different ways. Sometimes I use it in full, sometimes using elements of it within a wider intervention. It has proven useful with; coaching clients, supporting the neurodivergent with coping with life challenges, with substance abuse clients (mostly alcohol and cocaine users), pornography addictions, survivors of life changing accidents and people with chronic pain.

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and hypnosis

Many hypnotherapists have found that ACT fits well into hypnotherapy. Some of the mindful exercises make excellent hypnotic inductions. In addition, ACT contains within it a number of visual metaphors designed to illustrate points. These metaphors can be delivered as immersive visualizations in hypnosis to deepen the learning. Further, as the mind appears to be more open to learning in hypnosis all the ways of thinking introduced as part of an ACT intervention appear to be more deeply engaged with.

If you are considering Acceptance and commitment therapy or hypnotherapy for issues such as;

• Pornography addiction.
• Sex addiction.
• Substance abuse.
• Anxiety.
• depression.
• Living with chronic conditions.

You may wish to contact Dr Matt, an experienced hypnotherapist and Diplomat member of the BSCH to arrange a free consultation.

References

1. Gloster AT, Walder N, Levin ME, Twohig MP, Karekla M. The empirical status of acceptance and commitment therapy: A review of meta-analyses. Journal of contextual behavioral science. 2020;18:181-92.
2. Mattikoppa NV, Harshitha G, Yahiya GKM, Paluru MS. Efficacy of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy in Social Anxiety Disorder: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. Journal of Psychiatry Spectrum. 2025;4(1):111-20.
3. Fattahi A, Mazini F, Jaberghaderi N, Rajabi F, Derakhshani M, Laki M. Effectiveness of acceptance and commitment therapy for distress, emotion regulation, and self-compassion in patients with cardiovascular disease: a randomized clinical trial. Trends in Psychiatry and Psychotherapy. 2025;47:e20230685.
4. López-Pinar C, Lara-Merín L, Macías J. Process of change and efficacy of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) for anxiety and depression symptoms in adolescents: A meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Journal of Affective Disorders. 2025;368:633-44.

The post What is Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) appeared first on Matthew Krouwel Hypnotherapist.

It’s unknown how many people experience and suffer from sex addiction or seek out sex addiction therapy as there is no clear definition of what sex addiction means. Certain behaviours and tendencies are common, for example;

• Obsessive thinking about and planning sex.
• Using sex as a distraction from poor mood or in response to stress.
• Failure to take control of sexual behaviour and thoughts.
• Repetitive sexual behaviour with disregard of physical, social and emotional risk.

What we do know for sure is that you can get better.

Considering therapy? here is what you need to think about:

• Am I ready to work? – therapy is not easy, your therapist will expect you to work, possibly doing meditation or relaxation exercises, making lifestyle changes. You may have to change social groups. Whatever it may be it will take time and effort.
• What is the best type of therapy? – there is no simple answer to this are many approaches to sex addiction therapy and few have been rigorously tested .However, I recommend active therapies like Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and hypnotherapy.
• Does the therapist have the skills and experience? – There are no hard and fast rules about identifying the right therapist for the job but generally look for someone who says they specialise in sex therapy, psychosexual work or sexual issues … and then phone them up and talk to them. Most therapists will be willing to discuss briefly on the phone or arrange a free consultation that will allow you to get to know them and make up your own mind. Just because someone has done some specialist training doesn’t mean they are the best, talk to them first to find out if you could get along.
• How long does it take? Again this may vary, I personally tend to say that 6 sessions are a good starting point for the way I work and most people find this is sufficient to enable change. Some people do long term support work beyond this to prevent relapse.

The most important thing towards a successful life change is picking up the phone and asking for help.

The author

Dr Matt Krouwel is a hypnotherapists with over 25 years experience and is a Diplomate member of the BSCH who specialises in sexual issues and problems including sex addiction and pornography addiction

Further reading - 

Binik, Y. M., & Hall, K. S. (Eds.). (2014). Principles and practice of sex therapy. Guilford Publications.

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