Making Space for What Matters: Find Freedom from Clutter and Hoarding with Acceptance and Commitment Therapy

A powerful and compassionate guide to help you find lasting freedom from hoarding.

If you hoard—or have a loved one who hoards—you may feel helpless, hopeless, or ashamed. The thought of letting go of belongings may fill you with anxiety, dread, or grief. And you may wonder if you’ll ever experience the freedom of living without the weight of this debilitating behavior. It’s important to know you are not alone, and that hoarding isn’t your fault. This book will help you find your way out of the clutter and chaos, and into the life you truly want.

Written by a team of mental health professionals and grounded in evidence-based acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), this book offers a values-based approach to finding lasting freedom from hoarding. Based on cutting-edge research, this book will help you unravel the stories your mind has created about you and your belongings. You’ll also discover how emotions and thoughts play a role in hoarding behaviors, and how you can declutter to live a life more closely aligned with your deepest values.

Most importantly, you’ll learn to move beyond feelings of shame and guilt that are associated with hoarding, and cultivate the self-compassion, self-awareness, and self-understanding needed to make real, lasting changes.

Jennifer Krafft, PhD, is an assistant professor at Mississippi State University whose work focuses on acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), self-help, and hoarding. She is editor of a book on innovations in ACT, has received grant funding from the Association for Contextual Behavioral Science (ACBS), and has published thirty-five journal articles. 

Clarissa W. Ong, PhD, is an assistant professor at the University of Louisville. She serves as associate editor for the Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science. She has published two ACT books; has contributed to more than seventy journal articles, including those on ACT, hoarding, and perfectionism; and has received grant funding from ACBS and the International OCD Foundation (IOCDF). 

Michael E. Levin, PhD, is a professor at Utah State University. He is an ACBS fellow and past editor in chief of the Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science, the peer-reviewed ACBS journal. He is a leading researcher on developing, evaluating, and disseminating self-guided ACT interventions for a wide range of mental health concerns. He has conducted more than fifty clinical trials evaluating ACT self-help interventions, and has made several of these programs publicly available as part of the USU ACT Guide suite of services. 

Michael P. Twohig, PhD, is a professor in the psychology department at Utah State University. He is a past president of ACBS. He has written more than 200 peer-reviewed publications and over ten books, and has received funding from many organizations, including the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). 

Foreword writer David F. Tolin, PhD, is founder and director of the Anxiety Disorders Center and the Center for Cognitive Behavioral Therapy at the Hartford Hospital Institute of Living in Hartford, CT. He is author of Face Your Fears and Doing CBT.