Is Acceptance and Commitment Therapy Similar to CBT?
ACT’s core prescriptions are as follows. First, a person needs to identify his values and use them to form specific life goals. Second, he needs to understand and accept that the pursuit of his goals can, at times, produce real mental discomfort such as fear of rejection when dating or “impostor syndrome” when climbing the career ladder. Third, the person needs to accept such discomfort as part of the price he pays for pursuing his goals.
What Is Existential Therapy?
We are all mortal and are aware of this fact. We are all unique and therefore can never be completely understood by others. We are not beholden to our natural drives and have to search for meaning beyond the biological imperatives of survival and procreation. Finally, life presents us with the need to make fateful decisions that come at a steep cost and whose consequences cannot be fully anticipated. Every cognitively mature person will have to deal with the existential problems listed above in one of three ways: avoid them, outsource them, or confront them.