The F.L. Wolters Group has been published in Counseling Today magazine, the flagship publication of the American Counseling Association. In the article, Founder and Therapist Lottena Wolters and Patient Care Coordinator Caitrin McKee describe the effectiveness of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) for clients experiencing depression. Since Lottena “began [her] D.C.-based private practice in 2016, new clients have increasingly presented with a profound loss of faith,” she says, “but not in the religious sense.”
According to Lottena, “theirs is a loss of faith in personal safety, which is included in the second level of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, along with law and order, physical security and economic stability. Some of my clients have also lost faith in themselves and their fellow human beings and feel acutely disconnected from the communities outside their inner circles. This loss of faith is the primary and most persistent symptom of their depression.
How do we help our clients feel connected and experience joy when they are bombarded with stressors such as news of political division, the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and the worsening impacts of climate change? It can be deeply distressing to realize we lack the power to change the turmoil in the world, especially for our clients who are experiencing depression.
But what if the goal of therapy is not to change our clients’ emotions or reduce their depressive symptoms, but instead enable them to compassionately accept their feelings while engaging less with self-bullying thoughts? ACT is an evidence-based mental health approach that helps clients learn to accept what is out of their personal control and commit to actions that improve satisfaction with their quality of life.”
Read more in "Rekindling connection to self & others through ACT" (we are the fourth article on the page)!
Comments