Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)

 

ACT focuses on building a compassionate relationship with thoughts and feelings. Especially the ones you might normally push away. Instead of fighting your emotions or feeling guilty for having them, ACT encourages acceptance.

 

A key tool is learning to “step back” from thoughts. For example, instead of thinking “It’s all my fault,” you might reframe it as “I’m having the thought that it’s all my fault.” This creates distance and reduces the power of the thought.

 

ACT also emphasizes identifying your core values and making choices guided by those values, rather than by fear or pain.

 

Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)

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CBT explores the connection between your thoughts, feelings, and behaviours. It works on the idea that unhelpful thinking patterns and learned behaviours can keep you stuck in distress.

 

A CBT therapist will help you:

 

• Identify harmful or distorted thought patterns

• Understand how they influence your feelings and actions

• Replace them with healthier ways of thinking and coping

 

This approach can help you build confidence, improve relationships, and create a more balanced perspective on yourself and the world.

 

Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT)

 

DBT combines two key ideas:

 

• Acceptance: Your feelings and experiences are real and valid

• Change: You can learn skills to manage emotions and build a life worth living

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DBT focuses on emotional regulation, mindfulness, distress tolerance, and healthy coping skills. A DBT therapist might teach you strategies for:

 

• Managing overwhelming emotions

• Coping with crises when you can’t change the situation

• Recognizing and accepting thoughts and feelings without judgment

 

You can check out our DBT Skills page for examples of tools you might learn in therapy.

 

Exposure Therapy

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Exposure therapy helps you face fears in a safe, controlled way with a trained therapist. This might happen in your imagination first or in real life.

 

A common approach is creating a “fear ladder” or hierarchy, starting with the least scary situation and gradually working up. For example:

 

1. Looking at a picture of a mouse

2. Watching a video of a mouse

3. Seeing a mouse behind glass

4. Seeing a mouse in a cage

5. Being in the same room as a loose mouse

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Some therapists go step by step, while others use “flooding,” starting with the most feared situation. Exposure is often paired with relaxation techniques to retrain your body’s panic response.

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Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)

 

EMDR helps your brain process unresolved traumatic memories safely and effectively. During sessions, a therapist guides you to recall distressing events while using bilateral stimulation (like side-to-side eye movements or tapping).

 

This process allows your brain to reprocess the memory so it becomes less triggering. Many people find that EMDR reduces flashbacks, panic responses, and other post-trauma symptoms over time.

 

Somatic Therapy

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Somatic therapy focuses on the deep connection between your mind and body. Trauma doesn’t just live in our thoughts. It often settles in the body, showing up as tension, pain, or a constant sense of alertness. Somatic therapy uses gentle physical awareness and movement to help release this stored trauma and create a sense of safety in your own body.

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Sessions may include:

• Body scans to notice where stress or emotion is held

• Breathing exercises to calm the nervous system

• Grounding and movement practices to gently release tension

• Touch or guided physical awareness (if you’re comfortable) to reconnect with safe sensations

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The goal of somatic therapy is to help you feel present, regulated, and in tune with your body. Over time, this can reduce trauma responses like hypervigilance, dissociation, and chronic tension, allowing you to feel safer and more at home in yourself.

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