ACT: Basics Concepts

J. Ryan Fuller, Ph.D.New York Behavioral Health

New York, NY

ACT in ContextRooted in Relational Frame Theory (RFT)Grew out of Contextual Behavioral PsychologyDirectly tied to basic research

ACT DefinitionSteve Hayes has defined Acceptance & Commitment Therapy as:1.“ACT is a functional contextual therapy approach based on Relational Frame Theory which views human psychological problems dominantly as problems of psychological inflexibility fostered by cognitive fusion and experiential avoidance. In the context of a therapeutic relationship, ACT brings direct contingencies and indirect verbal processes to bear on the experiential establishment of greater psychological flexibility primarily through acceptance, defusion, establishment of a transcendent sense of self, contact with the present moment, values, and building larger and larger patterns of committed action linked to those values.” 2.“Said more simply, ACT uses acceptance and mindfulness processes, and commitment and behavior change processes, to produce greater psychological flexibility.”

ACT: AcronymsPsychological Inflexibility

ACT

FEAR

Psychological Flexibility

ACT: AcronymsPsychological Inflexibility

ACT

FEAR

Psychological Flexibility

usion with thoughtsvaluation of experiencevoidance of experienceeason-giving for behavior

ccept reactions hoose a valued directionake action

Psychological InflexibilityPsychological Inflexibility Psychological

Flexibility• Experiential

avoidance• Unclarified values• Inaction, Impulsive

action, Persistent Avoidance

• Cognitive fusion• Conceptualized self• Conceptualized past

and future

Psychological Flexibility

Psychological flexibility is contacting the present moment fully as a conscious, historical human being, and based on what the situation affords changing or persisting in behavior in the service of chosen values.

05/03/23

Hayes Overview of ACT“ACT / RFT embraces a vision we had almost lost:

empirically validated interventions, a link to basic principles, and (like Skinner’s expansive vision) actively seeking a comprehensive psychology more adequate to the challenge of the human condition”

“So far as I know, ACT / RFT is now the only empirical clinical approach with its own comprehensive and highly successful basic research program in cognition”

EssentialComponents

of ACT

There are six

essential

sub-processes

in ACT

Acceptance

EssentialComponents

of ACT

AcceptanceNoticing private experiences without attempts to alter or prevent them, allowing them to run their course without defense

Defusion

Acceptance

EssentialComponents

of ACT

DefusionPerceiving private events as private events, not what they symbolically represent

Self asContext

Defusion

Acceptance

EssentialComponents

of ACT

Self-as-Context The self as perspective or the observing self

Self asContext

Contact with the Present Moment

Defusion

Acceptance

EssentialComponents

of ACT

PresentContact with the present moment, i.e., the “here and now”

Self asContext

Contact with the Present Moment

Defusion

Acceptance Values

EssentialComponents

of ACT

ValuesChosen life directions; what one wants to be about

Self asContext

Contact with the Present Moment

Defusion

Acceptance

Committed Action

Values

EssentialComponents

of ACT

Committed ActionCommitted behaviors that are value-congruent

Psychological FlexibilityCapacity to experience the present moment and behave according to chosen life direction(s)

Defusion

Acceptance

Let Go

UndermineExcessive Literality

SharedPropertyRelations

There are several kinds of relations among these six

essential sub-processes. “Shared

property relations” are those in which each component together forms a functional unit. Defusion and acceptance are both about undermining

excessive literality, or (more colloquially)

“letting go.”

Colloquially:

More technically:

Self asContext

Contact with the Present Moment

Defusion

Acceptance

Let Go Show Up

UndermineExcessive Literality

Verbal andNon-Verbal

SharedPropertyRelations

Self as context and contact with the

present moment both involve verbal and non-verbal aspects

of “here and now”, or more colloquially,

“showing up.”

These processes are in the center of the hexagram because issues of being are central to all of the other processes and

at one level of analysis ACT can be distilled down into a

single word: Be.

Colloquially:

More technically:

Self asContext

Contact with the Present Moment

Defusion

Acceptance

Committed Action

Values

Let Go Show Up Get Moving

UndermineExcessive Literality

Verbal andNon-Verbal

Build PositiveUse of Language

SharedPropertyRelations

Values and Committed

action involve

positive uses of language

to choose and complete courses of action ...

that is they are about getting moving

Colloquially:

More technically:

Dialectics1 the art of investigating or discussing the truth

of opinions. 2 enquiry into metaphysical contradictions and

their solutions. the existence or action of opposing social forces,

concepts, etc..

Defusion

Acceptance

Committed Action

Values

Facets of the Acceptance and Change

Dialectic

Dialectical relations exist between undermining and promoting language functions in the service of acceptance and change

Self asContext

Contact with the Present Moment

Defusion

Acceptance

Committed Action

Values

FacilitativeRelations

Some relations are

simply mutually

facilitative ...

for example defusion

helps make contact with the present

moment possible

while contacting the present

momentprovides the events that

may need to be defused

from

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

is this psychological

space

The Essence of ACT Work

and what it is, is the answer to this central ...

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...