Introduction to Acceptance and Commitment Therapy

Introduction to Acceptance and Commitment

Therapy

Patty Bach, Ph.D.Daniel J. Moran, Ph.D., BCBA

Acknowledgments

• The ACT/ RFT community was very supportive and helpful as I compiled this presentation

The purpose of life is not to be happy, but to matter, to be productive, to be useful, to have it make some difference that you have lived at all.

-Leo Rosten

We can try to control the uncontrollable by looking for security and predictability, always hoping to be comfortable and safe.

But the truth is that we can never avoid uncertainty and fear. So the central question is not how we avoid uncertainty and fear but how we relate to discomfort.

-Pema Chodron

Use only that which works, and take it from any place you can find it

– Bruce Lee

It’s like you’re surfing…

The same wave that can be a source of pain, can be a beautiful flowing grace and source of power.

It’s all a matter of how you respond to it.

-Trey Anastasio

What have I gotten myself into!?

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy is

…built on empirically based principles…aimed to increase psychological flexibility …using a mindfulness-based approach …with behavior change strategies

An Intro to the Intro to ACT

… built on empirically based principles

Severe substance abuse

Obsessive-compulsive disorder

Depression

Workplace stress & creativity

Panic disorder

Social phobia

Smoking

Chronic pain

Trichotillomania

Psychosis

…aimed to increase psychological flexibility

Psychological flexibility is: contacting the present moment fully

as an historical human being,

and based on what the situation affords

changing or persisting in behavior

in the service of chosen values.

…using a mindfulness-based approach

Mindfulness is:…much easier learned by experience, but……it involves:

paying attention in a particular way; on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally – Jon Kabat-Zinn

…with behavior change strategies

Behavior change strategies include:

Applied Behavior Analysis strategiesContingency management Level systems

Traditional Behavior Therapy strategiesExposureSocial skills training

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy is an empirically based intervention aimed to increase psychological flexibility using a mindfulness-based approach with behavior change strategies

Self asContext

Contact with the Present Moment

Defusion

Acceptance

Committed Action

Values

EssentialComponents

of ACT

Acceptance

Actively contacting psychological experiences directly, fully, and without needless defense while behaving effectively

Hayes, Wilson, Gifford, Follette, & Strosahl, 1996, p. 1163

Defusion

Looking at thoughts, rather than from thoughts

Seeing thoughts as what they are, not as what they say they are

Self as Perspective

A sense-of-self that is a consistent perspective from which to observe and accept all changing experiences

Committed Action

Overt behavior in the service of valuesMoving forward in your important chosen directions

Values

Chosen life directionsValues give life meaningThere is a distinction between a value and a goal

Intimate relationshipsFamily relationsSocial relations

EmploymentEducation and training

RecreationSpiritualityCitizenship

Health/physical well-being

Contact with the Present Moment

Mindfulness practice is based on the premise that only in the experience of the current event can one accurately perceive what is really happening

Self asContext

Contact with the Present Moment

Defusion

Acceptance

Committed Action

Values

EssentialComponents

of ACT

These six core processes are interconnected with mutual and facilitative relationships among them…

Self asContext

Contact with the Present Moment

Defusion

Acceptance

Committed Action

Values

EssentialComponents

of ACT

Self asContext

Contact with the Present Moment

Defusion

Acceptance

Committed Action

Values

This then is the overall

ACT model

Self asContext

Contact with the Present Moment

Defusion

Acceptance

Committed Action

Values

Acceptance and Mindfulness

Processes

You can chunk them into two larger groups

Self asContext

Contact with the Present Moment

Defusion

Acceptance

Committed Action

Values

Commitment and Behavior

Change Processes

Thus the name “Acceptance and

Commitment Therapy”

and

Self asContext

Contact with the Present Moment

Defusion

Acceptance

Committed Action

Values

Psychological Flexibility

(1) Given a distinction between you and the stuff you are

struggling with and trying to change

(2) are you willing to have that stuff, fully and without defense

(3) as it is, and not as what it says it is,

(4) AND do what takes you in the

direction

(5) of your chosen values

(6) at this time, in this situation?

ACT Question

If the answer is “yes,” that is what builds...

• www.contextualpsychology.org• www.ACTinPractice.com• Daniel.moran@comcast.net