Acceptance and Commitment Therapy aims to help people live a life that is rich and meaningful to them.
It does so by helping them clarify what their values truly are and encourages them to commit to them and live them. Multiple skills are taught to increase psychological flexibility, including metacognitive skills for dealing with automatic negative thoughts. Often these thoughts are irrational and recognised as such. However, they often continue to hold significant influence over people and affect their mood, relationships and behaviour over long periods of time. Traditional approaches of Cognitive Behaviour Therapy may be ineffective in some circumstances and may at times make things worse. The specific skills acquired in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy allow the individual to handle unpleasant, painful or intolerable thoughts without fusing with them.