Acceptance and Commitment Therapy: Learning to Thrive Through The Mindfulness and ACT Approach Made Simple. Get Out of Your Mind and Start Living Your Life. by RACHEL DAVIDSON MILLER

Author:RACHEL DAVIDSON MILLER [MILLER, RACHEL DAVIDSON]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-03-10T17:00:00+00:00

Chapter 8

What is the ACT Model?

The ACT is a therapy that is meant to be applied to a wide range of psychiatric problems and challenges in life. Studies suggest that acceptance and commitment therapy may be a permanent cure for problems such as chronic pain, obsessive-compulsive disorder, depression, stress, and various forms of anxiety disorders.

The ACT focuses primarily on what we want out of life. This involves a collaborative process in which both the therapist and the client contribute to setting short-term and long-term goals as well as coordinating their acts. Some popularly used strategies and skills when practicing ACT include:

•Exercises of mindfulness

•Use of metaphors and paradoxes

•Group activities

•Value assessments

•Awareness exercises

What distinguishes ACT is its success in the use of a range of approaches or techniques that tackle each of the six core principles of ACT.

3.1 Practicing ACT Interventions

When ACT is practiced, there is no single type of ACT intervention to be used. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy can range from very brief, lasting a few minutes to lengthy, multi-session therapy interventions.

Expansion and acceptance intervention, for example, may include one or more activities to address over-identification; similarly, they may incorporate or allow the individual to practice ‘unhooking' from the negative thinking pattern. The former may be a single activity as an intervention, or it may require practice over a long period of time.

Even self as observer intervention may include any number of exercises related to defusion, such as the Observer meditation, or may involve working with metaphors that are perspective-shifting exercises for ‘creative hopelessness.' Similarly, there exist myriad methods or techniques of mindfulness that are part of Being Present interventions, and Cognitive Defusion interventions or strategies to re-evaluate negative or painful feelings, and the list continues.

The real deal for the therapist is to understand what intervention might work best in a particular case scenario. It is equally important for the person undergoing therapy to understand the real aim of the intervention used in order to yield desired results

For instance, if a client is distressed by memories of past events, he or she must acknowledge that the event has occurred, and this may gradually diminish associated feelings. Examples of things that cannot be modified and are better accepted are physical handicaps and past trauma. No matter what kind of intervention is used in a particular case, the goal of ACT intervention should remain focused on shifting from experiencing the content to experiencing the context.

Use of Techniques

ACT methods are often used with metaphors, paradoxes, and experiential activities. There are many approaches that are playful, imaginative, and smart. ACT procedures can range from brief in-minute treatments to those that span several sessions.

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