Acceptance and Commitment Therapy does not try to silence anxiety. It teaches you to hold it, unhook from it, and move towards what genuinely matters anyway. AI-guided ACT sessions that adapt to what you bring.
Based on Steven Hayes' ACT model — the most rapidly growing evidence-based therapy in the world
Most approaches to anxiety — and most people's instinct — is to fight it. Challenge the thought. Push down the feeling. Distract yourself. Reassure yourself. These strategies work in the short term and make things worse in the long term. The technical term is experiential avoidance — and it is the engine that keeps anxiety running.
ACT takes a completely different position. The goal is not to have fewer anxious thoughts. The goal is to change your relationship with those thoughts so they no longer control your behaviour. You can be anxious and still do what matters. You can have the thought "I am going to fail" and still show up. That is psychological flexibility — the core outcome ACT builds.
The central metaphor in ACT is the sky and the weather. You are the sky. Anxiety, fear, painful thoughts — these are weather. The weather changes. The sky does not. ACT teaches you to be the sky rather than be the storm.
Stop The Loop delivers ACT through guided sessions that move through the six core processes — defusion, acceptance, present moment, observing self, values, and committed action — adapted in real time to what you bring to the session.
Stop The Loop uses both. Your assessor chooses the right approach for each moment — sometimes CBT, sometimes ACT, sometimes both in the same session.
ACT works through six interconnected processes. Every session touches on one or more of these. Together they build the psychological flexibility that makes anxiety manageable rather than overwhelming.
Over 300 randomised controlled trials. Effective for anxiety, depression, chronic pain, OCD, and more.
Stop The Loop is a self-guided ACT and CBT tool. It is not a replacement for professional therapy. If you are experiencing severe anxiety or a mental health crisis, please speak to your GP or a qualified therapist. Read our full disclaimer.
ACT principles run through every session type. Whether you are doing a thought record or a values check-in, your assessor brings defusion, acceptance, and values-based thinking to the work.
The most distinctly ACT session. Reconnect with what genuinely matters across your life domains and identify where you feel most out of alignment. Build one committed action to close the gap this week.
Explore what your recent mood data is telling you. ACT uses pattern awareness to identify where avoidance is running the show — the places where anxiety is quietly making decisions on your behalf.
The classic CBT thought record with an ACT lens. Rather than just challenging whether the thought is true, your assessor also helps you defuse from it — so even if it might be true, it no longer controls your behaviour.
Contain a specific worry and decide whether to engage with it or set it aside. ACT's acceptance work makes worry time more effective — you are not suppressing the worry, you are making a conscious choice about when to engage with it.
Open conversation with your assessor. No agenda. Bring whatever is on your mind. Your assessor draws on ACT and CBT as appropriate to what you bring — defusion when you are fused with a thought, acceptance when you are fighting a feeling, values work when you feel lost. A genuine conversation that goes where it needs to.
Different assessors bring different ACT flavours. Here are the kinds of things they say when working through the six processes.
"You do not have to fight this feeling. Just notice it is here. It is allowed to be here while you do what matters anyway."
— Lisa, Acceptance work"Feel your feet on the floor. What does your body know right now that your mind keeps running past?"
— Rowan, Present moment & values"Try this: say the thought out loud and put 'I notice I am having the thought that...' in front of it. How does that change it?"
— Callum, DefusionComposite case studies based on common anxiety presentations and evidence-based ACT treatment approaches. Names and details have been changed.
How Priya used ACT defusion to unhook from the mind-reading stories her anxiety was generating — "everyone thinks I am stupid" — and values work to reconnect with why she was at university in the first place.
How Rachel used ACT acceptance work to stop fighting the anxious feeling, defusion to unhook from the fortune-telling stories, and values work to clarify what kind of partner she actually wanted to be — not what anxiety was making her become.
How Mark used ACT's observing self practice to step back from the rumination loop rather than fighting it — recognising the voice as "the manager story" rather than truth — alongside values work that clarified what actually mattered at the end of each day.
How Emma used ACT acceptance to stop fighting the terrifying intrusive thoughts and defusion to recognise them as anxiety talking rather than facts — freeing her to be the mother she wanted to be rather than the one her anxiety was demanding.
Your assessor weaves these throughout the session based on what you bring. You do not need to know the technique names to benefit from them.
Five sessions a month on the free tier. No credit card required. Values Check-in and all session types available from day one.
Important: Stop The Loop is a self-guided CBT and ACT tool for anxiety management. It is not a medical device, diagnostic tool, or replacement for professional mental health treatment. If you are experiencing a mental health crisis, please contact your GP, call NHS 111, or contact Samaritans on 116 123.