Acceptance
means stopping the exhausting fight with internal experience. This means not approving of it, not resigning yourself to it, and certainly not pretending it does not hurt. Just no longer spending most of your energy trying not to have it.
Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT) in Brampton
For When You Have Tried Everything to Stop Feeling This Way, and It Has Not Worked
Most people arrive at counseling with a clear objective in mind. They want the anxiety gone. The intrusive thought needs to stop. The grief is to be finished with.
That is a reasonable thing to want, and it is also the thing that keeps many people stuck. Enormous effort goes into controlling an internal experience, and the effort itself becomes a second full-time problem on top of the first.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy asks a different question. Not how do we get rid of this feeling, but what would you be doing with your life if this feeling were no longer in charge of it?
Start With a Conversation
Call 416-409-8045 to book a free 30-minute consultation.What Is Acceptance & Commitment Therapy?
ACT, usually pronounced as the word "act" rather than as three letters, is an evidence-based approach that developed out of cognitive behavioural therapy.
Where CBT often examines whether a thought is accurate and works on changing it, ACT takes a different route. It works on changing your relationship to the thought so that it carries less weight regardless of whether it is true.
The name describes the two halves.
Commitment
means identifying what genuinely matters to you and acting on it, including on the days when the difficult feelings are present.
The underlying observation is that pain is not optional in a human life, but a great deal of suffering comes from the struggle against it.
The Idea Behind It
Most people's instinct with a difficult feeling is to get rid of it. Push it down, argue with it, distract from it, and avoid whatever triggers it.
In the short term some of this works, which is precisely why it persists. In the longer term, these strategies tend to shrink a life. The person who avoids social situations to manage anxiety gradually has fewer. The person who stays busy to outrun grief never gets to put it down.
ACT suggests a different move. Let the feeling be present, stop assigning it authority over your decisions, and go and do the thing you care about anyway.
That is considerably harder than it sounds, which is why it is done with a therapist and not from a paragraph on a website.
What Can ACT Help With?
Depending on your circumstances and your therapist's clinical assessment, ACT may support people experiencing:
- Anxiety, worry, and persistent overthinking
- Depression and low mood
- Chronic stress and burnout
- Avoidance that has narrowed daily life
- Harsh self-criticism
- Grief and loss
- Chronic pain and long-term health conditions
- Difficult experiences from the past that continue to intrude
- Feeling stuck or disconnected from what used to matter
- Living with a long-term condition or diagnosis
It is often useful for people who have already tried to think their way out of something and found that understanding it did not change it.
ACT is not automatically right for everyone, and a therapist should assess that rather than assume.
How Does It Work?
ACT is usually described through six connected processes. In practice they overlap rather than proceeding in order.
Noticing thoughts as thoughts
Learning to observe that your mind has produced something, rather than immediately treating it as fact. "I am a failure" becomes "I am having the thought that I am a failure," which sounds like a small distinction but is not.
Making room for difficult feelings
This means allowing an uncomfortable emotion to be present without the usual fight. This phase is the part people expect to dislike, and it is often the part that produces the most relief.
Being present
Attention is on what is actually happening now, rather than on a rehearsal of the future or a rerun of the past.
Perspective
Recognizing that you are the one noticing your thoughts and feelings, not the thoughts and feelings themselves. They move through. You remain.
Values
Working out what genuinely matters to you, as distinct from what you think should matter or what other people expect, is often the most surprising part of the work and, for many people, the most useful.
Committed action
Taking real steps in the direction of those values, starting small, including on the days when it is difficult.
What Might Happen During a Session?
ACT tends to be active. Alongside conversation, you might work through short exercises, use metaphors that make an abstract idea concrete, or practice noticing thoughts as they arrive.
You will likely spend real time on values, which can feel unfamiliar. Most people have not been asked what kind of person they want to be, apart from what they want to achieve.
You will probably be asked to try something between sessions, and it is usually a small, specific action rather than an insight.
Is ACT Right for Me?
It may suit you if you do:
- Have tried to eliminate a feeling and found the effort made things worse
- Are avoiding situations, and notice your life has narrowed as a result
- Understand a pattern perfectly well and still cannot shift it
- Are dealing with something that cannot simply be removed, such as chronic pain, a diagnosis, or a bereavement
- Would rather work on living well than on feeling differently
- Want something practical and action-oriented
It may suit you less if you want an approach centred mainly on examining the past, or if the idea of acceptance currently reads as giving up. That reaction is common and worth raising with a therapist rather than treating as a disqualification.
ACT at C.S. Counselling
Counselling here does not begin with which technique to use. It begins with what has been happening.
Listen.
We start with your account of what has been going on.
Understand.
We look at the patterns, the avoidance, and what has already been tried.
Support.
Where ACT is clinically appropriate, an appropriately trained therapist may use it to help you loosen the grip of difficult thoughts and move toward what matters to you.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy is among the approaches used within the practice, and two clinicians work with it.
Komal Pithava
Komal Pithava, Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying), is a member of the Association for Contextual Behavioural Science, the professional body for this approach, and is completing Trauma-Focused ACT training with Russ Harris. She combines ACT with trauma-informed practice, compassion-focused approaches, and mindfulness and works with teenagers, adults, and families in English, Hindi, and Gujarati.
Sierra Jones
Sierra Jones, Registered Psychotherapist (Qualifying), includes ACT among the modalities she draws on, alongside CBT, person-centred therapy, and behavioural strategies. She works with children, adolescents, adults, and families, with particular experience in ADHD, autism, and neurodivergence.
These interventions should only be provided within a clinician's professional training, competence, and scope.
Meet Our Counselling Team →
Trauma-Focused ACT
The standard ACT was not designed specifically for trauma, and applying it without adaptation can move faster than is useful for someone carrying difficult experiences.
Trauma-Focused ACT adapts the approach for that, with more attention to pacing, to safety, and to building the capacity to stay present before any difficult material is approached. Komal is currently completing this training with Russ Harris, who developed the model.
ACT in Brampton & Online
In-person counselling is available at the following locations:
C.S. Counselling & Consulting Services 2250 Bovaird Drive E, Suite 408 Brampton, ON L6R 0W3Virtual counselling is available across Ontario with selected therapists. Mention it when you get in touch and we will tell you who is available.
Frequently Asked Questions About ACT
Does acceptance mean giving up?
No. It means ending the fight with an internal experience so your energy goes somewhere more useful. Acceptance is about the feeling, not the situation.
Is ACT the same as CBT?
They share a foundation, but the aim differs. CBT often works on changing the content of a thought. ACT works on changing how much authority the thought has.
Do I have to talk about my past?
Less than in some approaches. ACT is mostly concerned with what is happening now and where you want to go, although your history is acknowledged where it is relevant.
Is there evidence behind it?
Yes. ACT is a well-established, evidence-based approach used for a range of concerns, including anxiety, depression, and chronic pain.
Can I have ACT in Hindi or Gujarati?
Komal offers sessions in English, Hindi, and Gujarati. Mention it when you get in touch.
How long does it take?
It depends on you and what you are working on, and it is reviewed as you go.
Can it be combined with other approaches?
Frequently. Both clinicians combine ACT with other methods depending on what is needed.
Start With a Conversation
You do not need to know which therapeutic approach suits you before getting in touch.
Tell us what’s been happening, what you’ve tried, and what you want your life to look like. From there, we can explore whether ACT or another approach may be a good fit.
Book Your Free 30-Minute ConsultationC.S. Counselling & Consulting Services
2250 Bovaird Drive E, Suite 408
Brampton, ON L6R 0W3
Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT) in Brampton | Counselling Across Ontario
If you are in immediate distress or concerned about your safety, please contact emergency services or a local crisis line. Ongoing counselling is not an emergency service.