Embrace the Fear, Part One: What is ACT Therapy?

Fear is an emotion that is triggered automatically when something or someone threatens our existence, integrity, or freedom. This activation is automatic and primitive, existing in all living primates (according to the Hebrew Language Academy).

The purpose of fear is to activate the body's systems to overcome the trigger of fear. The bodily sensations that arise during fear are what prepare the body to respond appropriately. There are various response styles, such as fighting or fleeing.

The service that emotion provides us, as human beings, is that we do not need to deliberate and process slowly and lengthily in our minds, which we view as an energy saver.

A bit more introduction: there are fears that stem from facts that pose a threat, as explained. But there are also fears whose source is entirely in our mind. The mind can imagine something so vividly that we experience it as reality.

Here, the world of therapy comes in. In almost all treatment methods, one wishes to bring the individual to recognize the distinction between two types of fear. In the professional literature, fears are those rooted in reality, and anxieties are those originating in the mind (articles from Tamir Institute, "Feeling Good" by David Burns, "Anxiety and Panic Disorders" by Dr. Aaron T. Beck).

If we momentarily step away from therapy and look at the messages we convey to our children when they express mind-based fears—anxiety—we see that we tend to explain that there is nothing to fear.

Small children imagine figures and monsters at night, a phenomenon familiar to almost every parent, and the natural response is to introduce the child to reality, to show there is nothing to fear (perhaps in the future we'll dedicate an article to understanding why we respond this way).

The most popular and researched treatment for anxiety is CBT—Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. In this treatment, the therapist wishes to introduce the patient to reality, to see that there is nothing to fear.

Pharmacological treatments also aim to lower the level of fear so that the patient does not experience the situation as frightening ("Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Adults" by Tzofi Marom, Iya Galboa-Shechtman, Nili Mor, and Joup Meyers).

These treatments have an honorable place in the world of therapy, and studies show they significantly reduce anxiety levels.

In the mid-1980s, Dr. Steven Hayes published his articles (on the "Treatplation" site), introducing a significant and groundbreaking addition to the world of therapy. He showed that the root of fears is the non-acceptance of unpleasant emotions as an integral part of life. The common notion that the mind's fear should be eradicated is what causes most of the suffering ("Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Adults"," Acceptance and Commitment Therapy" by Steven C. Hayes).

Based on this understanding, Hayes changed the entire purpose of therapy. Instead of eradicating the fear, he actually recommends accepting the fear, experiencing it fully, and changing the perception of living in the shadow of fear. Thus, ACT therapy (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy) was created. This is done with tools from the world of classic therapy, but with an emphasis on acceptance, not eradication.

He emphasizes that this therapy expands the individual's comfort range and flexibility in various situations encountered in life.

Numerous studies demonstrate the method's effectiveness in expanding the patient's well-being and its high capacity to generalize the philosophical concepts to other life areas.

In this article, we focused primarily on the philosophy underlying the therapy, and it is understood that this is not the place to explain the therapeutic tools, which include instilling the above philosophy through mindfulness practice and enhancing psychological flexibility. The method allows the individual to remain faithful and committed to their life values, even with existing disturbances.

It appears that when a person embraces their fears, they live a fuller life.

Orly Samira is a psychotherapist and therapist at the Hashen Department

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