Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) for Artists
A resource sheet for managing distressing situations
What Is ACT?
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT, pronounced as one word) is an evidence-based psychotherapeutic approach that cultivates psychological flexibility—the capacity to remain present, open, and engaged in meaningful action even in the midst of destabilizing thoughts and emotions.
For artists, this means continuing to create, perform, and live in alignment with one’s values, even in the face of stage fright, harsh criticism, or career precarity.
Why ACT Can be Helpful for Artists
Artistic life carries distinctive pressures:
Performance anxiety can make any particular audition or performance feel like an existential threat.
Criticism, whether from others or from one’s own inner voice, can be profoundly destabilizing.
Precarity brings chronic uncertainty about finances and professional prospects.
Most therapeutic models emphasize symptom reduction. ACT departs from this premise. It begins with the recognition that suffering is intrinsic to human life. The aim is not to erase anxiety or pain, but to carry them with steadiness and awareness—while still moving toward what matters most in artistic and personal existence.
Why We Suffer
Our brains evolved to keep us alive, not to keep us calm. They are designed to scan for danger, store memories of failure, and anticipate disaster. For artists, this survival machinery often expresses itself in ways that feel painfully familiar:
Obsessing over a wrong note, a dismissive review, or an embarrassing misstep.
Believing that anxiety is proof of inadequacy or lack of talent.
Equating mistakes with exile: “If I fail, I’ll never belong in this field.”
ACT offers a path out of this evolutionary trap—toward a more deliberate, creative freedom.
The Six Core Processes of ACT for Artists
1. Defusion – Thoughts are not facts
Buddhist teacher Joseph Goldstein once described a thought as “a little something more than nothing.” Defusion trains us to regard thoughts as events of the mind rather than immutable truths. “One wrong note will ruin this concert” is not an inevitability, but merely a thought. Naming it as such—“I am having the thought that one wrong note will ruin this concert”—creates some degree of added space to choose a different response.
“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.”
Viktor Frankl
2. Acceptance – Making space for what arises
Anxiety before performance is not a weakness but testimony to the importance of this particular moment and all that goes along with it. It would be surprising if there were not some jitters! Attempts to suppress it often escalate into panic: anxiety about anxiety. Acceptance means allowing the nervous system’s alarm to be present without treating it as enemy or verdict. Push a balloon under water and it bursts upward with greater force; anxiety behaves the same way. Acceptance allows us to notice its presence and continue the work at hand.
3. Present-Moment Awareness – Returning to the here and now
The mind is adept at rehearsing past humiliations or anticipating catastrophe. Mindfulness practice—of breath, sound, or bodily sensation—reanchors attention in the immediacy of the moment. It is a discipline of noticing without judgment, letting each moment arrive without being eclipsed by the last or the next.
4. Self-as-Context – You are larger than your content
When anxiety dominates, the self becomes completely absorbed by its contents: intrusive thoughts, looping fears. ACT offers an alternative: self-as-context. Here, the self is not defined by its contents but is the container that holds them. Like a vessel that holds shifting elements—memories, doubts, exhilarations—without being reducible to them, we can inhabit a wider vantage point.
5. Values – Your artistic compass
Values are chosen directions, not imposed verdicts. They are not dictated by critics or institutions but emerge from within: honesty in expression, curiosity, beauty, connection, resilience. Like a compass, values orient us even when the path is murky or the terrain swampy.
6. Committed Action – Doing what matters
ACT culminates in action: not merely identifying values but embodying them, step by step. This means walking onstage despite doubt, persisting in rehearsal when motivation wanes, choosing collaboration because connection matters. Committed action tolerates distress in the service of a larger purpose.
Together, these six processes build psychological flexibility: the capacity to keep making art—and living fully—even under pressure.
How Artists Can Practice ACT
Before a performance: Notice the anxious thoughts, perhaps write them down, then reframe them: “I am having the thought that…” Observe whether they loosen their grip.
Following criticism: Pause to register the sting before silencing it. Ask: “What value anchors me here—growth, authenticity, honesty?”
In career uncertainty: Name what matters (curiosity, collaboration, social impact) and take one small, concrete step in that direction.
Daily awareness: Let your practice itself be the ground—notice the vibration of a string, the rhythm of breath, the weight of movement—as anchors to presence.
Questions for Reflection
What values guide me as an artist beyond external success?
How do I usually resist or avoid difficult feelings, and at what cost?
What small act could I take today, in line with my values, even if doubt or fear insists on accompanying me?
Evidence and Relevance
ACT has been tested in more than 1,000 clinical trials. It has demonstrated effectiveness for anxiety, depression, chronic pain—and, crucially, for performance anxiety and resilience in high-pressure domains such as sports and the performing arts.
It does not promise a life without anxiety. Instead, it offers a way to make room for it while continuing to shape a life of meaning, artistry, and connection.
The Green Room offers counselling and workshops informed by ACT and related approaches.
Author: Heather O’Donnell - psychologist, artistic-systemic therapist and founding director of TGR The Green Room