Hi, I'm Mark Lockyer, Social Worker, Teacher and Author of this informative web site. For the past 15 years in varying capacities, I have been providing support for people in a number of settings, including private practice, schools, justice, hospitals and child protection. In the last 2 years I have discovered ACT. It has been like a breath of fresh air. It is through this web site I hope to share with you why I believe that to be so. Please come along for the journey!

Being formally trained I have practised mainly cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) when counselling people. CBT has proven popular in mainstream therapy as it is quantifiable, that means it is measurable. This in turn means you can measure the changes in people's 'conditions' to see whether they have improved or not (have the depressive symptoms improved or not).  In our scientific world if something can be measured it is far more accepted than anecdotal evidence. This in turn often means more research money can be found to progress the cause.

Other therapies like Freud's psychoanalytic theories have fallen out of favour because it is difficult to measure, for example, the ego or the id - they are theoretical constructs that can't be seen or physically located.

ACT is a breath of fresh air because it can be measured which helps keep the critics at bay and ensures it is is a viable therapy, which in turn means funding can be made available to help progress research. It also means ACT is not abandoned to the realms of alternative therapies where there is less than favourable acceptance and credence, regardless of whether those alternative therapies work or not.

Thank goodness trees do not dwell. Like this lone tree we need to make the most of the moment and adapt to survive. I am not going to be the one to say whether this tree is any less 'happier' than any other. It simply "is".

ACT introduces new concepts to mainstream therapy which are very exciting. One of those concepts is the role of the observer. Eastern philosophies such as Buddhism have more understanding of the role of the observer than we do in Western societies. The role of the observer in ACT means we can learn to view our problems outside of ourselves, as though we are looking at what is unfolding rather than being actively engaged in the problem.  An analogy here is holding your hands close to your eyes and trying to see the world normally. It is difficult because your hands are blocking your view and having your hands so close to your eyes also means that you cannot focus clearly on them. This then makes the situation more overwhelming and hard to move beyond.

When you move your hands further away from your eyes your view of the world improves and you are able to more clearly focus on your hands and see their detail with more depth and complexity. In this example our hands could be depression, or anxiety, fear, guilt or a myriad of other conditions that can adversely affect our lives when they appear overwhelming, like having our hands up close to our eyes.

When our hands are close to our eyes we can become so overwhelmed with the fear that we cannot do anything because seeing the way forward or being able to investigate another way to deal with our issues is almost impossible because of the impediment our hands cause. Believe it or not this often happens when the depression or anxiety or whatever ailment or condition it is, overwhelms us.

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Like when you observe your hands, see your problems in a similar way. Honour the role of the observer. Keep enough distance between you as the observer and your problem (your "hands") such that you can still focus clearly

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Breathe

Another easy way to realise the role of the observer is to take a moment to focus on your breathing. Do that now - focus on your breathing. Realise how before I mentioned here for you to focus on your breathing, you probably were not even aware of your breathing. It was simply happening in the background. You have now gone into the role of the observer and your focus is on your breathing. This brings you very much into the present moment, which increasingly you will realise is all we have. We can spend so much time thinking about things that are not in the present moment and therefore not real. The past is not real and neither is the future. This is an important concept to grasp. There is only now.

In fact if someone who had never met you previously came up to you and started chatting to you, it would be just about impossible for you to prove that anything else in your life actually existed beyond what was happening there and then, talking to this stranger. The stranger would have to take it on good faith that you did have a life outside of the present moment.

When you embrace ACT you will realise so much of what you think about is actually irrelevant in your life. This can be difficult for many people to grasp because we do live in a world where worry and guilt and fear play an important part in our life. When you simply focus on now, it is not possible to have those other feelings because they exist in the past or the future. If you would like to accept your thoughts and feelings whilst learning to quiten your mind, ACT can help.

This is a very brief introduction to Acceptance Commitment Therapy, ACT. I have designed this web site to be interactive. My aim is to build a community of like minded people excited at the prospect of expanding their knowledge and finding answers to the sometimes debilitating thoughts and feelings that can dominate our lives. We all have those thoughts and feelings and we will always have them. ACT offers a way to better deal with them with clarity and being able to better see the options that lead to a life that is full of more vitality and meaning.

Please explore the blog pages and especially feel free to respond and reflect on your experiences. Feel free as well to ask questions and seek solutions to issues impacting your life.

Welcome aboard!

Creating reality in the moment.