Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)

When Fighting Your Inner Experience Feels Exhausting

Life often brings difficult thoughts, uncomfortable emotions, and challenging experiences that we didn't choose. Sometimes we try so hard to control or suppress these internal experiences that we exhaust ourselves without actually feeling better.

Maybe you've spent energy trying to quiet anxious thoughts, only to find them louder than before. Maybe you avoid situations that might trigger difficult feelings, but find your life shrinking as a result. You may notice that the strategies that helped you cope in the past are no longer serving you as well.

These patterns can influence more than your immediate comfort. They can affect your choices, relationships, ability to pursue what matters to you, and the way you engage with life overall.

At Jeanes Mental Health Services, we provide acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), a mindfulness-based approach that helps clients accept difficult thoughts and emotions while taking action aligned with their values. Our method promotes psychological flexibility—the capacity to stay present, open to experience, and committed to meaningful action. We keep your individual needs, goals, and values at the center of the work.

Understanding How Mindfulness-Based ACT Works

ACT is rooted in the understanding that suffering is often part of being human, but our struggle against inner experiences can amplify pain and limit how fully we live. Rather than trying to eliminate difficult thoughts and feelings, mindfulness-based ACT teaches skills to relate to them differently while moving toward what matters most.

Mindfulness plays a central role—helping you observe your thoughts and feelings without being swept away by them, creating space between you and your inner experiences so you can choose your response rather than react automatically.

Sometimes you know exactly which struggles you'd like to work on. Other times, you may simply know that you feel stuck, disconnected, or carried along by automatic patterns.

ACT may be particularly helpful if you're experiencing:

  • Anxiety or worry that feels impossible to control or quiet

  • Avoidance of situations, emotions, or thoughts that feel threatening

  • Rigid thinking patterns that narrow your options and flexibility

  • Harsh self-criticism or negative self-talk that shapes your choices

  • Difficulty staying present because you're caught in regrets or fears

  • Conflict between what you feel and what you want to do

  • Exhaustion from constant efforts to fix, suppress, or manage internal states

  • Sense that life lacks meaning, purpose, or clear direction

  • Grief, loss, or major life transitions that feel overwhelming

  • Relationship challenges related to emotional distance or reactivity

  • Difficulty making decisions that reflect your deeper values

  • Burnout from trying to control everything that feels uncertain

  • A desire to respond to life with greater presence and intention

You don't have to wait until these patterns feel unbearable to seek support. Sometimes therapy begins with recognizing that your usual ways of coping are costing you too much.

Mindfulness-based ACT can provide tools to slow things down, understand your relationship with your inner experiences, and take action that builds a meaningful life.

Understanding What Is Happening Beneath the Surface

Acceptance and commitment therapy uses mindfulness practices to cultivate psychological flexibility—our capacity to be present, open to experience, and committed to action guided by values. Difficult patterns often stem from attempts to avoid discomfort that ultimately narrow our lives rather than expand them.

Our therapists take time to map out your specific relationship with difficult thoughts and emotions, teaching you to observe them mindfully rather than be controlled by them.

Together, we may explore:

Mindful Awareness: Cultivate present-moment attention that helps you notice thoughts, feelings, and sensations as they arise without immediately reacting or judging them.

Acceptance: Learn to make room for difficult experiences rather than fighting them or letting them dictate your choices. Acceptance means allowing experience to be as it is without struggle.

Cognitive Defusion: Develop skills to see thoughts as passing mental events rather than absolute truths that must determine your behavior. Mindfulness creates space between you and your thoughts.

Present Moment Engagement: Practice grounding yourself in the here and now, connecting with your surroundings and experiences with curiosity rather than judgment.

Self-as-Context: Explore a perspective on yourself as the conscious observer of your experiences rather than being defined by your thoughts, feelings, or roles.

Values Clarification: Identify what truly matters to you—your deepest hopes, ideals, and principles—and distinguish these from societal expectations or automatic reactions.

Committed Action: Take concrete steps toward living in alignment with your values, even in the presence of discomfort or uncertainty.

Well-Being Through Psychological Flexibility: Build the ability to adapt to changing circumstances while remaining grounded in what gives your life meaning and purpose.

The goal isn't to eliminate difficult experiences or achieve permanent happiness. It's to develop a more flexible, open relationship with your internal world and take action that moves you toward a life that feels meaningful and well-lived.


Insurance & Access

We accept most major insurance plans, including Blue Cross Blue Shield, Cigna, Optum, Aetna, UnitedHealthcare, and TRICARE. Coverage varies by state and plan, and we're happy to help you check your eligibility before your first session.

Why Telehealth Works

Discussing mental health concerns requires a space where you can feel comfortable being honest. Telehealth allows you to meet with your therapist from a private location without adding another appointment or commute to your schedule.

We use Zoom to provide secure and confidential therapy sessions, allowing you to connect with your therapist from wherever you are in Georgia or North Carolina.

Mindfulness-based ACT works especially well in a telehealth setting because mindfulness skills can be practiced anywhere—at home, during breaks, or in challenging situations throughout your day. Whether you're seeking relief from specific symptoms or working toward broader life changes, sessions can provide a dedicated space to develop tools you'll continue using.

Ready to Talk to Someone?

Struggling with difficult thoughts and emotions can leave you exhausted and disconnected from the life you want to live. Mindfulness-based ACT can offer a private, supportive space to understand your relationship with inner experiences, clarify what matters most, and take meaningful action toward your goals.

Whether you're grappling with anxiety, depression, avoidance patterns, values confusion, or simply wanting to respond to life with greater presence and intention, ACT can help you approach these concerns with greater openness, flexibility, and psychological well-being.

[Schedule Your First Session →]

Or call us today at 678-805-7181 or email info@jeanesmentalhealth.com.

We're here to provide a compassionate, non-judgmental space where you can speak openly about what you're experiencing. Our therapists will work with you to understand the patterns that may be affecting your well-being and develop a path forward that reflects your needs and goals.