Is Online Therapy Suitable for Children and Teenagers?
September 25, 2026
One of the most common questions people ask is whether Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) actually works for anxiety. Often, they’re hoping therapy will help them stop feeling anxious altogether.
What I usually tell people is that ACT approaches anxiety a little differently.
Rather than trying to eliminate anxious thoughts, ACT helps you develop a different relationship with them. The goal isn’t to pretend anxiety isn’t there or to force it away. Instead, it’s about reducing the amount of influence anxiety has over the choices you make and the life you want to live.
This approach is supported by a growing body of research, and Canadian mental health resources recognize that while Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) remains the first-line psychotherapy for anxiety, the most appropriate therapeutic approach depends on the individual, their needs, and their preferences.
Most people come to therapy wanting relief from anxiety, which is completely understandable. Anxiety can be exhausting. But what I often notice over time is that people are just as worn out by everything they’ve started doing to avoid feeling anxious.
Someone may stop speaking up in meetings because they’re afraid of saying the wrong thing. Another person constantly asks for reassurance before making decisions. Others spend hours replaying conversations in their minds, searching for something they might have done wrong.
One thing I see repeatedly is that anxiety gradually begins making more and more decisions. Life slowly becomes organized around avoiding discomfort rather than moving toward what matters. Most people don’t come to therapy because anxiety exists. They come because anxiety has started shrinking their world.
Many people assume therapy should teach them how to stop anxious thoughts. ACT asks a different question.
Instead of asking, “How do I get rid of anxiety?”, we begin exploring, “How do I stop letting anxiety decide how I live?”
That shift can feel surprisingly freeing.
In therapy, we learn to notice anxious thoughts without automatically believing them or fighting with them. We also explore what matters most to you and how to continue moving toward those values, even when anxiety shows up along the way.
What I often notice is that people spend years waiting to feel confident before taking action. Over time, they begin discovering that confidence often grows because they take action, not before.
Many people who feel caught in patterns of worry, avoidance, or overthinking find that ACT therapy for anxiety offers a new way forward. More broadly, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy supports people through many different emotional and mental health challenges.
No single therapy approach is the right fit for everyone, and that’s okay.
Some people respond well to CBT. Others find that ACT better matches the way they experience anxiety. Canadian mental health guidance emphasizes that treatment should be individualized and that a person’s preferences, goals, and response to therapy all play an important role in choosing the most appropriate approach.
In my experience, ACT can be particularly helpful for people who feel caught in cycles of overthinking, self-criticism, or avoidance. Rather than spending session after session trying to win the battle against anxious thoughts, we begin exploring how to make those thoughts less influential while building a life that feels more meaningful and connected.
At Steady Heart Counselling, I use ACT to help people develop a different relationship with anxiety – not by pretending it isn’t there, but by helping it take up less space in their lives. If you’re looking for ACT therapy for anxiety in Victoria or anywhere in British Columbia through online counselling, I offer a free 15–20 minute consultation where we can talk about what you’ve been experiencing and whether this approach feels like the right fit for you.
Anxiety rarely shows up in isolation. For many people, it becomes entangled with how they cope day to day, the habits that develop around it, the things they start avoiding, the energy spent managing it before anyone else notices. Understanding anxiety coping strategies can be a useful starting point, though most people find that strategies alone have limits when the pattern underneath hasn’t been addressed. That’s often where a more structured approach like ACT becomes useful, not as a replacement for coping, but as a way of understanding how therapy helps anxiety at a deeper level than symptom management alone.
