ACT Therapy in the Netherlands — Acceptance and Commitment Therapy in English

ACT — Acceptance and Commitment Therapy — belongs to the third wave of cognitive behavioural approaches. Rather than changing the content of difficult thoughts, it changes your relationship to them. At ExpatPsychologie we offer ACT in English and Polish, online and in person in Amersfoort.

What Is ACT

Classical CBT asks: is this thought accurate? ACT asks: does following this thought move you toward the life you want?

That distinction matters practically. Not every difficult thought can be successfully challenged. Sometimes the thought is partly true. Sometimes fighting it costs more energy than simply having it.

ACT builds psychological flexibility — the capacity to stay present, remain open to your own experience, and act in line with your values even when it is uncomfortable. It works through six processes:

• Acceptance — dropping the struggle against emotions that cannot be removed
• Defusion — observing thoughts rather than being fused with them
• Present-moment contact — stepping out of rumination about the past and anxiety about the future
• Self as context — a sense of continuity independent of changing internal states
• Values — clarifying what actually matters to you
• Committed action — concrete steps in the direction of those values

When ACT Works Better Than Classical CBT

• Chronic stress and burnout — where the problem is not a distorted thought but genuine overload requiring a shift in priorities
• Loss of meaning — when everything technically works and it still feels empty
• Generalised anxiety — when worry is diffuse and there is no single belief to test
• Chronic pain and physical illness — when the source of discomfort cannot be removed
• Difficulty with acceptance — of loss, diagnosis, or circumstances that will not change
• Recurrent depression — ACT has strong evidence for relapse prevention
• Perfectionism and self-criticism — when previous attempts to "think differently" have not worked

How ACT Works in Practice

ACT is more experiential than classical CBT. Rather than analysing thoughts on paper, we work more often through exercises, metaphors, and experiments.

Phase 1 — assessing flexibility. We identify where you are stuck: avoiding emotion, fused with thoughts, disconnected from values, or immobilised.

Phase 2 — working with avoidance. You learn to experience difficult emotions without immediately acting on them. This opens space for choice rather than automatic reaction.

Phase 3 — values clarification. A direct question: what matters to you, regardless of whether it is easy? This is often the most revealing part of the process.

Phase 4 — committed action. Building concrete, achievable steps toward those values — including on the days when anxiety or exhaustion have not gone anywhere.

How Long Does ACT Take

Typically 10–20 sessions. For a focused presentation such as burnout, 10–14 sessions is often sufficient. ACT also combines well with CBT and EMDR, and in many cases we work with a blended approach.

ACT for Expats in the Netherlands

ACT is particularly useful in the expat context for one reason: many of the difficulties of living abroad cannot be solved — only related to differently.

You cannot change the fact that your family is a flight away. You cannot make yourself feel as rooted here as you did at home. You cannot remove the low-level sense of being slightly outside things.

Classical CBT has limited leverage against problems that are real rather than distorted. ACT offers tools for living a full life alongside them, instead of waiting until they stop hurting.

Practical Information

Book a Free Consultation

A short call will help establish whether ACT fits what you are bringing, or whether CBT or EMDR would serve you better.

Book a free consultation →