Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT): Basics
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Transcript of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT): Basics
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...