You cannot think your way out of every thought. ACT is the evidence-based approach that stops trying. Instead of arguing with anxiety, grief, or the voice that says you are not enough, you learn to carry it and keep moving toward a life that actually means something. Delivered by a Registered Clinical Counsellor who has done the hard version of this, not read about it.
Book a Free 15-Min Call No referral required telehealth available across BC no obligationMost therapy tells you to challenge the bad thought, reframe it, replace it with a better one. That works until it does not, and then you are stuck arguing with your own mind and losing. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy takes a different position: the goal is not to feel better, it is to get better at feeling. You stop spending your whole life managing discomfort and start spending it on what matters. The technical name for that is psychological flexibility. In plain terms, it is being able to hold a hard feeling and still do the thing.
Fighting anxiety, grief, or intrusive thoughts is a rope you cannot win. ACT teaches you to drop the rope. Not resignation, not positive thinking, just no longer burning your life fighting what is already here.
You are not your thoughts, and you do not have to obey them. Defusion is the skill of watching a thought happen instead of being run by it, so the loud ones lose their grip.
Anxiety lives in the future, regret lives in the past. Both pull you out of the only place anything happens. ACT builds the capacity to actually be where you are.
Not goals, values. The direction you want your life to point regardless of whether you ever arrive. When you are clear on that, hard choices get simpler even when they do not get easier.
Insight without action is just an interesting problem. ACT is behavioural. You leave with something you are actually doing differently, moving toward what you value while the uncomfortable feelings come along for the ride.
Underneath every story you tell about yourself is the part that has been watching the whole time. ACT helps you stand there, where a bad day is survivable because it is not the whole of who you are.
You do not have to win the argument with your own head to move forward. You just have to stop letting it decide where you go.
Nicholas van Sabben, RCC | Kamloops, BCACT can be taught badly. In the wrong hands it becomes a stack of metaphors and mindfulness homework that never touches the real thing. That is not what happens here.
I am Nicholas van Sabben, a Registered Clinical Counsellor (RCC #19988) based in Kamloops. I came to this work the long way, through underground mining, emergency services, a serious personal mental health history, and clinical training after all of it. I know what it is to carry something heavy and still have to show up. ACT is not a theory to me. It is how a person keeps functioning when the feelings do not cooperate.
I work with EMDR and DBT, and I use ACT as part of that toolkit, not as a script. For trauma, ACT and EMDR work together: EMDR to process what is stuck, ACT to rebuild the life that avoidance shrank. No worksheets handed across a desk. No being told to just accept it. A direct, practical way of working from someone who does not flinch at the hard stuff.
As a Registered Clinical Counsellor (RCC), sessions qualify under most extended health benefit plans in BC. This includes major group insurers Manulife, Sun Life, Great-West Life, Desjardins, and most employer or union benefit packages.
Additional coverage: FNHA NIHB direct billing available for eligible First Nations clients. Band Council and MCFD referrals accepted. ICBC MVA claims contact to confirm current eligibility.
No referral required from a physician. First consultation is always free. ACT is delivered in-person in Kamloops or by telehealth anywhere in BC. Contact directly to confirm your specific benefit coverage before booking.
What is Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)?
ACT is an evidence-based therapy that stops treating difficult thoughts and feelings as problems to be eliminated. Instead of fighting anxiety, grief, or intrusive thoughts, you learn to make room for them and take action toward what you actually value. It is a third-wave behavioural therapy, in the same family as DBT, with strong research support for anxiety, depression, chronic pain, and trauma.
How is ACT different from CBT?
CBT works by challenging and changing the content of your thoughts. ACT works by changing your relationship to them. You do not have to win the argument with your own head to move forward. For people who have done CBT and still feel stuck in the same loops, that shift is often the missing piece.
What does ACT help with?
Anxiety, depression, chronic pain, trauma, grief, burnout, substance use, and the general experience of being stuck or going through the motions. ACT is especially useful when the problem is not one clear symptom but avoidance: a life that has quietly narrowed to avoid discomfort.
Is ACT therapy available online in BC?
Yes. ACT works well over telehealth and is available across British Columbia. Sessions with a BC-licensed RCC are covered by the same extended health benefits as in-person sessions, and no physician referral is required.
A direct conversation to determine fit. You ask what you need to ask. I will tell you clearly whether ACT is right for what you are dealing with and if it is not, I will point you somewhere better. No sales pitch.
A thorough assessment: history, what you are carrying, what has been tried, and most importantly what you actually want your life to be about. Values are where ACT starts, so this is where we start.
ACT skills applied to your specific situation, paired with EMDR or DBT where it fits. You leave sessions with something you are doing differently, not just something you understand. In-person in Kamloops or telehealth across BC.
15 minutes. A real conversation. No obligation. If ACT is not the right fit, I will tell you and give you somewhere better to go.
Book Your Free Consult Kamloops in-person Telehealth across BC No referral required