Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for Adults in NJ, PA, FL and TX
I am a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) offering Acceptance and Commitment Therapy online to adults in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Florida, and Texas. I use ACT as a targeted clinical tool within an integrative practice, particularly for avoidance patterns, values clarification, and defusion from rigid thinking that keeps adults stuck in patterns they clearly recognize but cannot shift on their own.
What is Acceptance and Commitment Therapy?
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is a behavioral and mindfulness-based approach developed by psychologist Steven C. Hayes at the University of Nevada in 1986. ACT is part of the third wave of cognitive behavioral therapy, sharing CBT's empirical foundation while departing from its core assumption that the goal of treatment is to change unhelpful thoughts and feelings. ACT's central contribution is the concept of psychological flexibility: the capacity to remain in contact with present experience, including painful thoughts and emotions, without suppressing them or being dominated by them, while taking action consistent with what the client genuinely values. The Association for Contextual Behavioral Science has documented over 1,000 randomized controlled trials examining ACT across clinical populations, making it one of the most researched psychotherapy approaches available. ACT works through six core processes: acceptance, cognitive defusion, present-moment contact, self as context, values clarification, and committed action, woven together as the clinical moment requires rather than applied in sequence. In short, ACT is not about feeling better. It is about living better, including in the presence of whatever pain is unavoidable.
What ACT sessions look like
ACT sessions are experiential rather than primarily didactic. While some psychoeducation early in the work is useful, sessions are structured around direct engagement with the client's present experience rather than analysis from the outside. In practice, a session might explore a pattern of avoidance: where it shows up, what it is protecting the client from, and what it is costing them in terms of valued action. Defusion exercises help clients create distance from rigid thought patterns that have been experienced as facts rather than as mental events that can be observed without being obeyed. Values clarification work explores what the client genuinely wants their life to be about, distinct from what they have been avoiding or chasing in response to pain. ACT sessions within my practice do not follow a rigid protocol. ACT concepts are drawn on when they serve the clinical moment, combined with IFS and somatic work when those frameworks address dimensions of the pattern that ACT alone does not fully reach. In short, an ACT session works to loosen the grip that painful thoughts and avoidance have on the client's behavior, not by eliminating the pain but by changing the client's relationship to it.
What ACT treats
ACT has been validated across a wide range of clinical presentations. Research supports its effectiveness for anxiety disorders, depression, chronic pain, substance use, eating disorders, and PTSD. A particularly consistent finding is ACT's effectiveness where cognitive fusion, the tendency to treat thoughts as literal truths that must be obeyed or fought, is maintaining the clinical difficulty. Within my practice, ACT is most useful in three specific situations. The first is avoidance patterns maintaining anxiety, burnout, or relational difficulty, where the client understands what they are avoiding but the avoidance feels stronger than the intention to change. The second is values clarification for adults in significant life transitions, identity confusion, or cultural conflict who have lost a clear sense of what they are living for. The third is the meaning dimension of recovery from trauma, burnout, or substance use: what a life aligned with genuine values looks like, and what actions are consistent with it. In short, ACT is most useful wherever avoidance, rigid thinking, or disconnection from values is the primary driver of a client's stuck pattern.
Why I use ACT
I use ACT because it addresses a dimension that depth-oriented and somatic approaches do not always reach directly: the client's relationship to their own mind and the behavioral patterns that relationship produces. For many adults, insight is not the problem. They know they are avoiding intimacy, catastrophizing, or staying in situations that are depleting them. What they cannot do is choose differently consistently enough for the pattern to shift. ACT provides concrete tools for that: defusion from the thoughts driving avoidance, contact with values that can orient action even when fear is present, and a framework for committed movement in a direction that genuinely matters. I find ACT particularly useful in combination with IFS. IFS identifies the parts in conflict. Psychodynamic work traces the history of those conflicts. ACT holds the question underneath both: what do I actually want my life to be, and what am I willing to do toward it? That question, when it can be held clearly, often reorganizes a great deal of the clinical work. In short, I use ACT because it gives clients something concrete to do with the insights they have already accumulated, and a values-based direction to move toward.
Fees and insurance
Alchemy Psychotherapy is a private-pay, out-of-network practice. The biopsychosocial assessment is $300. Standard 45-minute sessions are $250. A 30-minute session is $185 when clinically indicated. In limited circumstances, a reduced fee is available based on financial need and current caseload availability. I do not bill insurance directly, but I provide a Superbill on the first of each month for clients with out-of-network mental health benefits. Under the No Surprises Act, you have the right to a Good Faith Estimate of expected charges before treatment begins. In short, private-pay therapy removes insurance company involvement from clinical decisions about session frequency, treatment duration, and modality choice.
How to get started
Beginning therapy involves three steps, handled entirely online. First, a complimentary 15-minute phone consultation where we discuss what brings you in and determine fit. Second, intake paperwork through a secure client portal. Third, the biopsychosocial assessment session of 60 to 90 minutes.
If we agree the practice is a good fit during the consultation, you typically begin treatment within one to two weeks. I am currently accepting new clients in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Florida, and Texas. You can also learn more about individual online therapy or review the full services page.
Currently accepting new clients for ACT therapy.
Frequently Asked Questions About Acceptance and Commitment Therapy
What is acceptance and commitment therapy?
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy is a behavioral and mindfulness-based approach developed by Steven C. Hayes in 1986. Rather than working to eliminate painful thoughts and feelings, ACT builds the capacity to hold them without being controlled by them, while taking action consistent with what the client genuinely values. Psychological flexibility, not symptom elimination, is the primary clinical goal.
What is the difference between ACT and CBT?
CBT works to identify and change unhelpful thoughts, treating them as problems to be corrected. ACT does not try to change or eliminate thoughts. Instead, it changes the client's relationship to them through defusion and acceptance. ACT also emphasizes values clarification and committed action as primary drivers of change, rather than the cognitive restructuring that is central to CBT.
What are the six core processes of ACT?
The six processes are: acceptance of difficult internal experiences rather than fighting them; cognitive defusion, creating distance from unhelpful thoughts; present-moment contact, staying connected to current experience; self as context, observing thoughts without identifying with them; values clarification, knowing what genuinely matters; and committed action, taking steps consistent with values even in the presence of difficulty.
What does an ACT session look like?
ACT sessions are experiential rather than analytical. They might involve exploring a specific avoidance pattern, practicing defusion from a rigid thought, or clarifying what the client genuinely values and what actions are consistent with it. Within my practice, ACT exercises are drawn on when they fit the clinical moment rather than applied as a fixed session-by-session protocol.
Is ACT evidence-based?
Yes. The Association for Contextual Behavioral Science has documented over 1,000 randomized controlled trials examining ACT across diverse clinical populations. Research supports its effectiveness for anxiety, depression, chronic pain, substance use, PTSD, and eating disorders. It is one of the most extensively researched third-wave behavioral approaches and is recognized by multiple major clinical bodies as an evidence-based treatment.
How long does ACT therapy take?
ACT can be applied briefly, in several sessions for specific avoidance patterns or values clarification goals, or as an ongoing dimension of longer-term integrative therapy. Within my practice, ACT is not a standalone treatment with a fixed timeline. It is one component of an integrative approach, with duration determined by the client's presenting concerns and overall treatment goals rather than a protocol.