Synopses & Reviews
Long awaited, here is the first book to apply the Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) model and its powerful techniques to a broad range of disorders and clinical settings. An innovative and groundbreaking approach, ACT cuts across the traditional categories of experiential, analytic, behavioral and cognitive therapies to utilize concepts of mindfulness and acceptance and the view that language is at the core of many psychological disorders. With the help of 26 expert contributors, ACT architects Hayes and Strosahl have expanded on their previous texts to give readers an elegant source of ideas for using this language/cognition-based method. • A concise overview of the theory, core processes, and key therapeutic messages of ACT, plus a framework for case conceptualization using ACT. • Techniques for using ACT to treat common behavior problems, including affective disorders, anxiety disorders, PTSD, and substance abuse/addiction. Chapters are included on clients with multiple problems and the severely mentally ill. • Uses of ACT for stress relief, for chronic pain management, and in inpatient medical settings. • Special chapters on children and families, and ACT with groups. Modeling the psychological flexibility that is so crucial to treatment, chapters illustrate ACT's adaptability to client problems as they arise, and its built-in strategies for cutting through impasses. Further, the book cogently differentiates ACT from related modes of therapy. This user-friendly volume will be a welcome guide for practitioners and students alike. It offers both a cogent theoretical model and a clinical guide for all professionals who treat mental health problems, regardless of theoretical orientation.
Synopsis
"ACT opened the door to more fascinating discoveries about human beings, language, and psychopathology in general. Within these discoveries also lie the treatment technologies comprising ACT that are competently presented in this book, A Practical Guide to Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. . .As the authors describe, this book is the first practical guide that highlights the ACT approach for numerous disorders and presents it in detail. . .The innovative conceptualization of psychopathology, presented in ACT, may appeal to practioners because it provides answers and alternatives to relapse and the difficulties some clients present with being unable to gain control of their symptoms. Practioners may also like the technology and the metaphors used in ACT. . .In each chapter presenting ACT for a different group of disorders, the authors skillfully present a formulation of the disorder based on the ACT principles and then describe the ACT approach for the specific disorder or group of disorders. . . " By Maria Karekla & Marianna Charilaou, PsycCRITIQUES, American Psychological Association, Volume 50, Number 52.
Synopsis
This volume is the most practical clinical guide on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) yet available. It is designed to show how the ACT model and techniques apply to various disorders, settings, and delivery options with the goal of allowing researchers and clinicians to begin applying ACT wherever it seems to fit. The book is divided into three sections, with chapters demonstrating the effectiveness of using ACT in the treatment approach for a wide range of clinical problems. The first section describes the theory underlying Acceptance and Commitment Therapy as a treatment approach and the core intervention processes that encompass ACT. The second section presents ACT as it is applied to some typical behavioral disorders encountered by mental health and substance abuse practitioners. The last section examines ACT as it is used with a variety of other populations, problems, settings, and modes of delivery. This volume will be of great value to therapists, practitioners, and students who are interested in new developments in cognitive and behavior therapy.
About the Author
Steven C. Hayes, Ph.D. is Nevada Foundation Professor at the Department of Psychology at the University of Nevada. An author of more than twenty books and more than 325 scientific articles, his career has focused on an analysis of the nature of human language and cognition and the application of this to the understanding and alleviation of human suffering. In 1992 he was listed by the Institute for Scientific Information as the 30th "highest impact" psychologist in the world during 1986-1990 based on the citation impact of his writings. Dr. Hayes has been President of Division 25 of the American Psychological Association, of the American Association of Applied and Preventive Psychology and of the Association for Advancement of Behavior Therapy. He was the first Secretary-Treasurer of the American Psychological Society, which he helped form. He has received the Don F. Hake Award for Exemplary Contributions to Basic Behavioral Research and Its Applications from Division 25 of the American Psychological Association and was appointed by HHS Secretary Donna Shalala to a 5 year term on the National Advisory Council on Drug Abuse in the NIH.
Table of Contents
An ACT Approach Chapter 1. What is Acceptance and Commitment Therapy? Steven C. Hayes, Kirk D. Strosahl, Kara Bunting, Michael Twohig, and Kelly G. Wilson
Chapter 2. An ACT Primer: Core Therapy Processes, Intervention Strategies, and Therapist Competencies. Kirk D. Strosahl, Steven C. Hayes, Kelly G. Wilson and Elizabeth V. Gifford
Chapter 3. ACT Case Formulation. Steven C. Hayes, Kirk D. Strosahl, Jayson Luoma, Alethea A. Smith, and Kelly G. Wilson
ACT with Behavior Problems
Chapter 4. ACT with Affective Disorders. Robert D. Zettle
Chapter 5. ACT with Anxiety Disorders. Susan M. Orsillo, Lizabeth Roemer, Jennifer Block-Lerner, Chad LeJeune, and James D. Herbert
Chapter 6. ACT with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. Alethea A. Smith and Victoria M. Follette
Chapter 7. ACT for Substance Abuse and Dependence. Kelly G. Wilson and Michelle R. Byrd
Chapter 8. ACT with the Seriously Mentally Ill. Patricia Bach
Chapter 9. ACT with the Multi-Problem Patient. Kirk D. Strosahl
ACT with Special Populations, Settings, and Methods
Chapter 10. ACT with Children, Adolescents, and their Parents. Amy R. Murrell, Lisa W. Coyne, & Kelly G. Wilson
Chapter 11. ACT for Stress. Frank Bond.
Chapter 12. ACT in Medical Settings. Patricia Robinson, Jennifer Gregg, JoAnne Dahl, & Tobias Lundgren
Chapter 13. ACT with Chronic Pain Patients. Patricia Robinson, Rikard K. Wicksell, Gunnar L. Olsson
Chapter 14. ACT in Group Format. Robyn D. Walser and Jacqueline Pistorello