Coaching practices for Act Therapy
Describe almost anything you are working through and IX Coach finds the practices whose real-world fit is closest. For Act Therapy, these are the strongest matches in the current practice library.
Does this sound like the set of challenges you might be facing?
- When I try to untangle one of these convictions in my head it just spins
- I want to work on this, but the thought of having to write out or relive every detail of what happened is exactly what stops me cold
- I’ll have a breakthrough where I really feel the better version of my story, and then a few days later the old defeating account has quietly taken back over as if it never happened
- All day my attention goes straight to what went wrong
Practices that may help
- Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Made Practical
ACT teaches you to stop fighting difficult thoughts and feelings and instead take committed action toward what you value, even while they are present. Its core processes — defusion, acceptance, contact with values, and committed action — have a substantial and growing base of randomized-trial support across many conditions. - Narrative Therapy: Rewriting the Stories That Define You
Narrative therapy, developed by Michael White and David Epston, holds that people live by stories — about who they are, what they’re capable of, and what their experiences mean. By separating the person from the problem ("the person is not the problem; the problem is the problem") and finding "unique outcomes" that contradict a limiting story, therapy opens space to author a more empowering alternative. The evidence base is growing but smaller and less methodologically uniform than CBT. - Use a challenging beliefs worksheet to work a stuck point completely
The CPT challenging beliefs worksheet is a structured, written process for examining one stuck point at a time.
Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT): Unsticking the Meanings That Maintain PTSD - Know that CPT-C (cognitive only) skips the trauma narrative
A cognitive-only version of CPT omits the written trauma account and may be more tolerable for some people.
Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT): Unsticking the Meanings That Maintain PTSD - Behavioral Experiments: Testing Beliefs in the Real World
Behavioral experiments are planned real-world activities in CBT that directly test the accuracy of a negative belief or prediction. Instead of just challenging thoughts on paper, the person collects live evidence for or against the belief — and that experiential evidence is often more belief-changing than logical argument alone. They are a core and well-supported component of CBT for anxiety, depression, and related difficulties. - Solution-Focused Brief Therapy: Building On What Works
Solution-focused brief therapy (SFBT), developed by Steve de Shazer and Insoo Kim Berg, directs attention to what already works — client strengths, past successes, and desired futures — rather than to analyzing problems. Meta-analyses report small-to-moderate positive effects across a range of presenting issues, with particular strength in behavioral problems and depression in adult populations. - Therapeutic Letters
A therapist’s written letter to a client between sessions — documenting alternative-story gains before they fade.
Narrative Therapy: Rewriting the Stories That Define You - Schema Therapy: Healing Early Maladaptive Beliefs
Schema therapy, developed by Jeffrey Young, extends CBT to address deep, longstanding beliefs about self and others — "early maladaptive schemas" — that formed in childhood and drive chronic emotional and relationship difficulties. It combines cognitive, behavioral, experiential, and relationship elements. Randomized controlled trials show effectiveness for borderline personality disorder and other chronic presentations that standard CBT does not adequately reach. These are psychoeducational principles; full schema therapy belongs with a trained schema therapist. - Metacognitive Therapy, Made Practical
Metacognitive therapy (MCT), developed by Adrian Wells, targets not the content of negative thoughts but the beliefs people hold about thinking itself — particularly the beliefs that worry and rumination are useful or uncontrollable. By changing these meta-level beliefs, MCT aims to stop the prolonged self-focused thinking styles that maintain anxiety and depression. A growing body of randomized controlled trials supports MCT as effective for GAD, PTSD, depression, and social anxiety, with some studies showing superiority to CBT. - The Formula First-Session Task and Between-Session Noticing
Assign between-session observation tasks that direct attention toward what’s already working.
Solution-Focused Brief Therapy: Building On What Works
Related concerns
- Between Session Therapy Tool
A therapist’s written letter to a client between sessions — documenting alternative-story gains before they fade.
Therapeutic Letters
- Cft Psychoeducation
Compassion-Focused Therapy (CFT), developed by Paul Gilbert, targets shame and self-criticism by training a compassionate inner voice to replace the punitive self-critic. It draws on evolutionary psychology and affective neuroscience — specifically, the finding that different emotional systems (threat, drive, soothing) have distinct neurobiological profiles. A growing body of RCT evidence supports CFT for shame-based difficulties, self-criticism, and depression, though the evidence base is smaller than for CBT.
- How Are You Managing Therapy Question
When things seem terrible, ask how the person is managing at all — acknowledging and excavating their resilience.
Coping Questions
- I Like My Therapist But I Feel Like Our Sessions Are Going Nowhere How Can I Tell If Therapy Is Working
After implementing, honestly assess what worked, what didn’t, and what to do next.
Evaluate the outcome and adjust
- Absent But Implicit Narrative Therapy
Every problem story implies a violated value — surfacing that value reveals the person’s strengths, not just their struggles.
The Absent But Implicit: What Problems Reveal About What We Value
- Action Focused Support
Solution-focused brief therapy (SFBT), developed by Steve de Shazer and Insoo Kim Berg, directs attention to what already works — client strengths, past successes, and desired futures — rather than to analyzing problems. Meta-analyses report small-to-moderate positive effects across a range of presenting issues, with particular strength in behavioral problems and depression in adult populations.
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