ACT: The Cornerstone of My Practice

Embracing Life with Authenticity and Purpose

Unlocking Psychological Flexibility to Enhance Your Life

In the journey of life, facing adversities with flexibility and aligning actions with deep-rooted values are essential. Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT) is more than a therapeutic method in my work; it’s the cornerstone of my practice, fostering psychological flexibility and encouraging you to meet life’s challenges with adaptability and an open mindset.

A Journey of Exploration and Acceptance

ACT is a journey towards self-exploration, acceptance, and action. It inspires you to embrace your thoughts and feelings without judgment and commit to actions that resonate with your core values—the essence of how I work.

The Foundation of the Six Pillars of Making a Life That Works

ACT employs a set of core processes, and each one forms the basis of one of my Six Pillars of Making a Life That Works:

  1. Present Moment Awareness: Enhancing adaptability and mindfulness—the basis of my Contacting the Present Moment (Be Here Now) pillar.
  2. Cognitive Defusion: Stepping back from overpowering thoughts—the basis of my Defusion (Watch Your Thinking) pillar.
  3. Acceptance: Embracing thoughts and feelings without judgment—the basis of my Acceptance (Open Up) pillar.
  4. Self-as-Context: Cultivating the observing self—the basis of my Self-as-Context (Balancing Self-Identity) pillar.
  5. Valued Living: Clarifying and committing to core values—the basis of my Values (Know What Matters) pillar.
  6. Committed Action: Engaging in actions aligned with personal values—the basis of my Committed Action (Do What It Takes) pillar.

Is ACT Right for You?

Navigating the complexities of life can sometimes feel overwhelming. Are you seeking a way to live more authentically, aligned with your deepest values? Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT) might be the transformative approach you need. Consider how ACT can be instrumental in your life:

  • Embracing Emotional Challenges: If you’re struggling with anxiety, depression, or emotional distress, ACT can aid in accepting these feelings without judgment, fostering resilience and emotional balance.
  • Coping with Life Transitions: Whether it’s career changes, relationship dynamics, or personal growth, ACT helps in navigating these transitions with a sense of purpose and clarity.
  • Enhancing Personal Relationships: For those striving to improve communication and deepen connections, ACT offers tools to enhance presence and understanding in relationships.
  • Living a Value-Driven Life: If you feel adrift or disconnected from what truly matters, ACT guides you in clarifying and committing to your core values, steering your life in a meaningful direction.
  • Overcoming Stuck Patterns: Break free from unhelpful behavioral cycles or thought patterns that hinder your growth and fulfillment.
  • Building Mindfulness and Presence: Learn to live more fully in the present moment, enhancing your awareness and engagement with life.
  • Achieving Psychological Flexibility: My approach to ACT fosters adaptability and openness, key traits for navigating life’s ups and downs with grace.

Embark on Your ACT Journey

Begin your transformative journey with Acceptance & Commitment Therapy. I’ll guide you through the paths of acceptance and commitment, fostering a life rich in meaning, fulfillment, and authenticity. Reach out today to start embracing life with the clarity and purpose that ACT offers.

What people often get wrong about Acceptance and Commitment Therapy

Starting with the word “acceptance.”

A smiling Colt Gordon with curly hair and a beard is wearing a white shirt, standing in front of a colorful landscape background and a bookshelf.

The Misconception

Acceptance means approving of what happened to me.

The Reality

Acceptance in ACT has nothing to do with approval. It means dropping the exhausting war against feelings that are already here — because what you resist, persists. You can fully accept that pain exists and still work to build a life that isn't run by it.

The Misconception

ACT sounds like new-age mindfulness dressed up as therapy.

The Reality

ACT was developed by psychologist Steven C. Hayes in the 1980s and is supported by hundreds of randomized controlled trials across depression, anxiety, chronic pain, and more. It uses mindfulness as one tool among six core processes — it's a structured, evidence-based model, not an incense purchase.

The Misconception

Feel it to heal it — you have to feel every feeling fully.

The Reality

Sometimes, yes — early in the work it matters that you can name what you feel and tell sadness from guilt from fear. But feeling feelings for the sport of it can re-traumatize you, and many of the feelings you carry aren't even yours — they're inherited from your family system. Sometimes the skill is observing a feeling without absorbing it. You won't hear that from a lot of therapists.

The Misconception

I need to get rid of my negative thoughts before I can move forward.

The Reality

Picture your life as a bus with you driving. Your thoughts, feelings, and old family patterns are passengers — some loud, some whispering, some grabbing for the wheel. The mistake is thinking you have to kick them all off before you can drive. They stay on the bus. They just don't choose the route unless you hand them the keys.

The Misconception

I should trust my feelings to guide my decisions.

The Reality

Feelings are wonderful servants but terrible masters. They carry real information, and they deserve a hearing — but a feeling is a passenger, not the driver. ACT teaches you to consult your values when it's time to choose the direction.

The Misconception

If therapy works, I’ll stop having anxious thoughts.

The Reality

Even after successful therapy, the anxious passenger gets back on at the next stop — that's what minds do. What changes is the relationship: you notice the thought, maybe say "thank you for sharing, anxiety," and keep driving toward what matters. That's the difference between a reactive life and an intentional one.

The Misconception

My pain has to go away before my life can start.

The Reality

"My pain needs to go away first" is exactly the belief that keeps people stuck. The pain is on the bus; we can work with that. The point isn't eliminating it — it's changing your relationship with it so it stops driving. People are consistently surprised how far into the background pain fades once it loses the wheel.

The Misconception

Struggling means something is wrong with me.

The Reality

Struggle is the human condition, not a malfunction. Anxiety, grief, self-doubt — these are the mind doing what minds evolved to do: trying to keep you safe. ACT starts from the premise that you are not broken, and that workability — not normality — is the goal.

The Misconception

The goal of therapy is to be happy.

The Reality

The goal is a meaningful life, which is bigger than a happy one. Chasing constant comfort creates a safe life in the short term — and a small one in the long term. ACT points you at your values and helps you act on them, with the full range of human feeling along for the ride.

The Misconception

Therapy should teach me to replace negative thoughts with positive ones.

The Reality

ACT doesn't argue with your thoughts or swap them for affirmations. It teaches defusion: seeing a thought as a thought — "I notice I'm having the thought that I'm a failure" — instead of a fact you must obey or a claim you must disprove. You don't need to win the argument with your mind. You just don't have to believe your own PR.

    Straight answers about ACT

    What it is, whether it’s backed by evidence, and what a session with me actually asks of you. If your question isn’t here, that’s what the free 15-minute consultation is for.

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