A few months ago I gave an introductory lecture on the ACT concept of defusion to a group of professionals that are participating in an online learning community called Practice Ground, led by Kelly Koerner, a well-known trainer of Dialectical Behavior Therapy. Let me know if you have any feedback. I hope you enjoy them. [...]
It turns out that if ecopsychology and ACT met on a mountain path, they would have quite a bit to say to each other. […]
The six core therapeutic processes of ACT have a lot to say about the successful functioning of intimate relationships. There is some good work already out there on this topic. This post mentions some of that work, and includes some of my own brief musings on this fertile subject. Read on… […]
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy is based on a theory of language and cognition called Relational Frame Theory (RFT). RFT is a much broader theory with much wider applications than therapy. For now, ACT is the most commonly recognized application of RFT, but other developments from RFT are coming, for example new educational tasks have been created that are being used to train students. Other researchers are looking at RFT preparations for training such basic skills as perspective-taking, a basic component of empathy. […]
Self as context is the concept that we are not the content of our experience -- we are not our thoughts, our feelings, our experienced sensations, the things we see, or the images that pass through our heads. Through exercises and metaphors, we can contact a transcendant sense of self that is more like the [...]
Dr. Kenneth Cole, Director of Training in Psychology at the VA in Long Beach, gives a nice interview on ACT as part of a podcast. He provides an overview of where ACT has come from in terms of its history. He also differentiates it in some ways from more traditional CBT. He also refers to [...]
A lot of what Steven Hayes says about achieving success as a graduate student in “Thirteen Rules of Success: A message for Students” (1998) rang true for me, as I bet it will for others. Take a look! […]
There’s no doubt that mindfulness meditation is good for you. Dozens of studies show it, centuries of Buddhism show it, and experience shows it. The puzzle is – we don’t know how to get people to do it. Saying “it’s good for you” isn’t enough. In studies where researchers and therapists try to teach meditation, only a small minority of people ever develop a regular mindfulness practice. It just doesn’t stick. It’s wonderful that some people sit on a meditation cushion 30 minutes a day–every day, day in and day out–but the reality is most people won’t do that. We need a way to bring the benefits of mindfulness to the rest of us. I think that the ACT hexagon model provides a piece of the puzzle. […]
“Arms at Rest” by Siri Hustvedt is an article that appeared in a recent New York Times issue. It’s a poignant and inspiring account of a person’s journey of acceptance of her chronic lifelong migraines. The author’s comments about the way in which our culture has confused accepting adversity in one’s life with being ‘passive’ or a ‘pessimist’ strongly brought to mind the nature of acceptance as it is understood and practiced in ACT. It also sent me on a hunt to discover what resources are out there on ACT for chronic pain… […]
One aspect of supervision with Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) that is different from many of the other empirically-supported approaches is the emphasis on the trainee utilizing the same therapeutic processes with themselves that they are asking their clients to use. Thus, supervision typically includes an experiential element in which the supervisor serves as a [...]