Life can be hard.
We want to help you manage life when it’s difficult. And we know that for many people ACT has a profound and positive effect on wellbeing.
ACT for Everybody is a 6 week course where you’ll learn how to interact more helpfully with thoughts, feelings and behaviours that you struggle with. You’ll develop your ability to move towards what matters to you even when you’re feeling bad. And you’ll do this with a small group of others.
We know that people wonder whether groups are for them! We find that discovering ACT in a group provides special opportunities to learn from each other and highlight how all our minds get stuck in struggle at times. The course includes chances to share but you can choose how much or little you contribute. Here is some feedback from a previous participant:
The course gave me time to stop and reflect in a non-threatening environment. It wasn’t rushed, it wasn’t pressured but there was a lot of skills, knowledge and tools that through the course became part of me. The course opened up struggles within me that I did not know were there and helped me deal with them. It gave me tools to deal with feelings that sent me in a spiral to dark places. It taught me that I can always do something. I went to the course believing that I was not brave enough to live my life and left with the courage to live it.
What is ACT?
We think about Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) as a way of helping people live their lives based on their values, and without painful thoughts and feelings getting in the way.
Emotional pain is a normal and unavoidable part of human experience. Often it is the struggle to avoid painful thoughts and feelings that leads to suffering. ACT is literally about taking action: accepting what you can’t change and committing to what you can.
What can I expect?
ACT for Everybody is a supportive, interesting, safe, confidential and fun course. It’s facilitated by experienced psychologists with between 6 and 14 participants. It runs for 2 hours on Tuesday afternoons, from 4:00pm to 6:00pm.
You need to join us for the first night of the course in order to take part in the rest of the course.
Giselle Bahr is a clinical psychologist and co-founder of ACT Wellington. She has been using ACT in her practice for over 15 years, and has been trained and supervised by many of the world’s leading ACT therapists and researchers. Giselle has worked at Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services, in Private Practice with adults and adolescents, and trained new clinical psychology students at Victoria University of Wellington. Giselle has developed and facilitates a group introducing ACT to Parents.
