Learning Acceptance and Commitment Therapy

The traditional practice of psychiatry has been focused on reducing or eliminating distressing, unwanted symptoms. But what if the key to health and well-being is not to be symptom free, but rather to function effectively in life even when symptoms are present? What if symptoms serve an adaptive and motivational function, rather than being signals of a latent illness? What if the key to personal health is the ability to accept symptoms for what they are and to do what matters in life at the same