Introduction to Acceptance and Commitment Therapy

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Introduction to Acceptance and Commitment
Therapy

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

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Acknowledgments

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

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

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Its like youre surfing The same wave that
can be a source of pain, can be a beautiful
flowing grace and source of power. Its all a
matter of how you respond to it.
-Trey Anastasio
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What have I gotten myself into!?
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An Intro to the Intro to ACT

• Acceptance and Commitment Therapy is
• built on empirically based principles
• aimed to increase psychological flexibility
• using a mindfulness-based approach
• with behavior change strategies

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built on empirically based principles

• Severe substance abuse
• Obsessive-compulsive disorder
• Depression
• Workplace stress creativity
• Panic disorder

• Social phobia
• Smoking
• Chronic pain
• Trichotillomania
• Psychosis

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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.

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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

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with behavior change strategies

• Behavior change strategies include
• Applied Behavior Analysis strategies
• Contingency management
• Level systems
• Traditional Behavior Therapy strategies
• Exposure
• Social skills training

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

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Acceptance

• Actively contacting psychological experiences
• directly, fully, and without needless defense
• while behaving effectively
• Hayes, Wilson, Gifford, Follette, Strosahl,
  1996, p. 1163

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Defusion

• Looking at thoughts, rather than from thoughts
• Seeing thoughts as what they are, not as what
  they say they are

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Self as Perspective

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

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Committed Action

• Overt behavior in the service of values
• Moving forward in your important chosen directions

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Values

• Chosen life directions
• Values give life meaning
• There is a distinction between a value and a goal

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• Intimate relationships
• Family relations
• Social relations
• Employment
• Education and training
• Recreation
• Spirituality
• Citizenship
• Health/physical well-being

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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

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

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This then is the overall ACT model
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Acceptance and Mindfulness Processes
You can chunk them into two larger groups
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Commitment and Behavior Change Processes
and
Thus the name Acceptance and Commitment Therapy
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ACT Question
(6) at this time, in this situation?
(2) are you willing to have that stuff, fully and
without defense
(5) of your chosen values
If the answer is yes, that is what builds...
(4) AND do what takes you in the direction
(3) as it is, and not as what it says it is,
(1) Given a distinction between you and the stuff
you are struggling with and trying to change
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Questions?
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• www.contextualpsychology.org
• www.ACTinPractice.com
• Daniel.moran_at_comcast.net