ACT worksheets, made beautiful.
Every Acceptance and Commitment Therapy worksheet you reach for in session — defusion, leaves on a stream, acceptance, choice point, values compass, committed action, self-as-context — in one place. Free, print-ready, and clinically tight.
Values Compass
ACT — name the directions that matter, not the goals
Twelve life domains, a single chosen value per domain, and one committed action this week. The compass, not the destination.
Cognitive Defusion
ACT — eight ways to unhook from a sticky thought
Sing it, say it slowly, name the story, thank the mind — small moves that turn a believed thought into a noticed one.
Leaves on a Stream
ACT — a guided mindfulness exercise for thoughts
Place each thought on a leaf and watch it drift past. Build the muscle of noticing thoughts without chasing them.
Acceptance & Willingness
ACT — stop the struggle, make room for what's here
A worksheet to see what struggling costs you, and to dial up willingness one small step at a time.
Choice Point
ACT — toward or away in the moment that matters
Map the hooks that pull you away from values and the moves that pull you toward them. A single decision diagram for the day.
Values Card Sort
Force-rank 30 values to surface what actually matters
Thirty values, four columns (most me / important / less so / not me). The sorting is the intervention — clients learn what they're prioritizing by accident.
Observer Self — The Sky and the Weather
An ACT exercise for the part of you that watches
The thoughts, feelings, and roles are weather; the sky behind them is what you are. A guided sequence to drop into the observer perspective.
Committed Action Plan
One value, one action, this week, in writing
Name the value, the smallest concrete action, the day and time, and the predicted obstacle. Values without action are inert.
Values Worksheet
Six life domains, what matters there, one aligned action
A simpler companion to the values compass and card sort. For each domain, name what you care about, rate current alignment, and pick one values-aligned action for the week.
Life Vision — More Of / Less Of
Eight life areas — what to grow, what to shrink, the first honest step
A vision worksheet that names, area by area, what the client wants more of and less of — health, work, close relationships, family, community, play, rest, money. Every want gets a value underneath and a first concrete step this week, so vision doesn't stay abstract.
Values Domains Audit
Alignment across 10 life domains
Rate current alignment across 10 valued domains — not how things are going, but how well ACTIONS point toward what matters.
Workability Question
Not 'is it true' — is it working?
The central ACT question: not whether a thought is true, but whether the strategy — thought, behavior, avoidance — is workable in service of the life you want.
Passengers on the Bus
You drive; loud passengers stay on board
The classic ACT metaphor turned into a worksheet — mapping current loud passengers, what they demand, and where you're still driving the valued route.
Tin Can Monster
Acceptance piece by piece
An acceptance exercise: take the 'monster' apart into thoughts, sensations, memories, urges. Meet each piece separately with willingness.
Mindful Observer Self
The you who has been noticing your whole life
Self-as-context practice tracing the observing-self across ages — the noticer who was there at 6, 16, and now.
Hexaflex Self-Rating
Where to start in ACT
Client rates current flexibility across all six hexaflex processes. Lowest score = where to start.
Creative Hopelessness
The struggle IS the problem
Early-treatment inventory of every strategy tried to control unwanted inner experience, with honest workability tracking. Opens space for something different.
Bull's-Eye Values
Lundgren's alignment tracking tool
Mark an X for how close you're living to each valued domain — center = fully aligned. Trackable over time.
Willingness Scale
Willingness is all-or-nothing; stakes are scaled
Willingness at the moment of choice is binary, but the STAKES you're willing to accept can be scaled. Practice with small stakes first.
Committed Action Ladder
The next rung, not the top
Break a valued direction into rungs from tiny to substantial. Committed action = pick the next rung, do it this week, name the passengers that will show up.
Values vs Goals
Directions, not landmarks
Sort your commitments into values (directions) vs goals (landmarks) and find the next tiny action.
Physicalizing an Emotion
Give it size, shape, color, weight
Externalize a difficult emotion by describing its physical qualities — reduces fusion and creates choice.
Milk, Milk, Milk
Words are not the things they name
Titchener's repetition demo applied to a sticky self-belief — say it for 45 seconds until it becomes sound.
80th Birthday & Funeral
What do you want them to say?
Two ACT thought experiments to clarify values, ending in one action this week that lives them.
Control Agenda Audit
The doorway to willingness
Inventory everything tried to control unwanted internal experience and the long-term cost — creative hopelessness.
Values Weekly Check-In
Sunday, 10 minutes
Three values audited against the week, one 10-minute course-correction for the most-skipped.
Values vs Shoulds Audit
Keep what survives scrutiny
Sort claimed values, actual values (per calendar and money), and inherited shoulds you didn't choose.
SMART Goals + Values
Anchor before specific
The SMART frame with a value anchor first — so the goal has a reason it should survive week two.
Quarterly Goal Review
Twelve weeks beats twelve months
What you said, what you did, what worked, what didn't (mechanism, not moral), next quarter's one big rock.
Tiny Habits (Fogg)
Behavior + anchor + celebration
Design one laughably small habit anchored to an existing behavior — with a 3-second celebration.
ACT Workability Audit (Daily)
Is it working — in service of what?
One behavior per day audited for workability and value-alignment — the unworkable pattern named at week's end.
Passengers on the Bus (Daily)
Which passenger grabbed the wheel
The loudest passenger this week, where it wanted the bus to go, and what driving-with-it-present looks like.
Hexaflex Weekly Check
Six processes, Sunday review
A quick per-process audit — presence, defusion, acceptance, self-as-context, values, committed action.
Goal–Value Alignment Audit
Every goal on your list should be serving a value you hold
Two-column audit: for each current goal, name the value it serves. Surfaces goals that serve no value (obligations to drop) and values that no goal is currently serving (the next action).
Behavior Workability Audit
Not right or wrong — workable or unworkable, in service of the life you want
ACT's simplest question applied to one specific behavior: what is it delivering short-term, what is it costing long-term, what value is it getting in the way of, and what smaller-cost alternative could serve the same short-term need.
What ACT worksheets do
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy works by building psychological flexibility — the ability to stay in contact with the present moment, hold thoughts and feelings lightly, and move in a valued direction even when the internal weather is hard. The worksheets in this library are the formats Hayes, Strosahl, Wilson, and Harris taught: defusion practices that loosen the grip of sticky thoughts, acceptance exercises that let unwanted feelings have space, values clarification tools that locate the compass, and committed-action planners that turn values into the next concrete step.
Every sheet is a single printable side. Use them as homework, as in-session structure, or as a reference handout for a client learning the ACT model.
Where to start
Start with the Values Compass. ACT is values-driven — the rest of the work only matters in the context of what the client cares about. Move to the Choice Point worksheet once values are named; it pairs cleanly with weekly behavior tracking and gives the client a simple binary to watch in real time (toward-move or away-move).
Add defusion (Leaves on a Stream, the Defusion sheet) once the client has the meta-position to watch a thought without immediately believing or arguing with it. Acceptance and Self-as-Context work tends to land later, often after defusion has loosened the most automatic content. Committed Action is the bridge back out — values plus the smallest concrete step you'll actually take.
Free to print, free to send
Every worksheet is free to download as PDF and free to send to clients via secure link from your TherapistAssist account. No watermarks, no per-sheet limits.
Frequently asked questions
What are ACT worksheets?+
ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy) worksheets are structured one-page handouts that operationalize the six core processes of psychological flexibility: cognitive defusion, acceptance, present-moment contact, self-as-context, values, and committed action. Each worksheet turns one process into a concrete page a client can fill out between sessions.
Which ACT worksheet should I start with?+
For most clients, start with the Values Compass — ACT is values-driven, and the rest of the work only matters in the context of what the client cares about. Once values are named, the Choice Point worksheet pairs cleanly with weekly behavior tracking. Defusion worksheets come in later, once a client has the meta-position to watch their thoughts.
What's the difference between ACT and CBT?+
CBT works to change the content of thoughts (challenge a thought, replace it with a balanced one). ACT works to change the relationship to thoughts (notice the thought, defuse from it, choose action anyway based on values). Both can be effective; ACT is often a better fit for clients who have plateaued on traditional CBT or where the thought-content battles aren't moving affect.
Are these ACT worksheets free?+
Yes. Every ACT worksheet in this library is free to download as a printable PDF and free to send to clients via secure link from a TherapistAssist account. No watermarks, no per-sheet limits.
Can I use these in group therapy?+
Yes. The Values Compass and Choice Point worksheets work particularly well in groups — values sharing builds cohesion, and choice point reviews work as a weekly between-session structure for an ACT-based process group.