In this landmark book, the originator and pioneering researcher into Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) lays out the psychological flexibility skills that make it one of the most powerful approaches research has yet to offer. Science shows that they are useful in virtually every area--mental health, physical health, social processes, and performance.ance.
Over the last 35 years, Steven C. Hayes and his colleagues have developed Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) with many hundreds of studies supporting the impact of his approach on everything from chronic pain to weight loss to prejudice and bigotry. A Liberated Mind is the summary of Steven’s life’s work which will teach readers how to live better, happier and more fulfilled lives by applying the six key processes of ACT. Put together these processes teach us to pivot: to “defuse” rather than fuse with our thoughts; to see life from a new perspective; and to discover our chosen values, those qualities of being that fuel meaning. Steve shares fascinating research results like how ACT techniques decreased typing errors on a clerical test or showed that positive affirmations actually increase negative emotion. And he weaves them with stories of clients and colleagues as well as his own riveting story of healing himself of a severe panic disorder, which is how the idea of psychological flexibility was born. A Liberated Mind is a powerful and important book about a new form of psychology, destined to become a modern classic of narrative psychology on par with Daring Greatly and Rising Strong by Brene Brown, or Carol Dweck’s Mindset.
Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) is among the most remarkable developments in contemporary psychotherapy. This second edition of the pioneering ACT skills-training manual for clinicians provides a comprehensive update—essential for both experienced practitioners and those new to using ACT and its applications. ACT is a proven-effective treatment for numerous mental health issues, including depression, anxiety, stress, addictions, eating disorders, schizophrenia, borderline personality disorder, and more. With important revisions based on new developments in contextual behavioral science, Learning ACT, Second Edition includes up-to-date exercises and references, as well as material on traditional, evidence-based behavioral techniques for use within the ACT framework. In this fully revised and updated edition of Learning ACT, you’ll find workbook-format exercises to help you understand and take advantage of ACT’s unique six process model—both as a tool for diagnosis and case conceptualization, and as a basis for structuring treatments for clients. You’ll also find up-to-the-minute information on process coaching, new experiential exercises, an increased focus on functional analysis, and downloadable extras that include role-played examples of the core ACT processes in action. By practicing the exercises in this workbook, you’ll learn how this powerful modality can improve clients’ psychological flexibility and help them to live better lives. Whether you’re a clinician looking for in-depth training and better treatment outcomes for individual clients, a student seeking a better understanding of this powerful modality, or anyone interested in contextual behavioral science, this second edition provides a comprehensive revision to an important ACT resource.
This book is the most practical clinical guide on Acceptance and Commit ment Therapy (ACT said as one word, not as initials) yet available. It is designed to show how the ACT model and techniques apply to various disorders, settings, and delivery options. The authors of these chapters are experts in applying ACT in these various areas, and it is intriguing how the same core principles of ACT are given a nip here and a tuck there to fit it to so many issues. The purpose of this book, in part, is to emboldened researchers and clinicians to begin to apply ACT wherever it seems to fit. The chapters in the book demonstrate that ACT may be a useful treat ment approach for a very wide range of clinical problems. Already there are controlled data in many of these areas, and soon that database will be much larger. The theory underlying ACT (Relational Frame Theory or "RFT"-and yes, here you say the initials) makes a powerful claim: psy chopathology is, to a significant degree, built into human language. Fur ther, it suggests ways to diminish destructive language-based functions and ways of augmenting helpful ones. To the extent that this model is cor rect, ACT should apply to a very wide variety of behavioral issues because of the centrality of language and cognition in human functioning.
The Canonical Papers of Steven C. Hayes is a compilation of his most pivotal articles written from 1982-2012. Through these selected papers, Hayes again revisits the theoretical struggles between behavioral and cognitive-behavior theories, taking us from the 1980s into present day, discussing the breakthroughs and follies. Using this as a focus point, he discusses the tradition of behavior analysis and its difficulties in addressing human language and cognition. Moving forward into the 90s, he chronicles the changes in a behavioral approach that emerge from a contextual perspective on human cognition, and lays out the foundation for a contextual behavioral science approach that he argues is more likely to lead to an understanding of human action and an alleviation of human suffering. Although the articles have previously been published, they have been edited and compiled ensure this branch of research is clear to the modern audience. The compilation was chosen by Dr. Hayes to enhance his vision for a functional contextual approach to complex human behavior.
A groundbreaking, comprehensive program for designing effective and socially equitable groups of all sizes—from businesses and social justice groups to global organizations. Whether you work in business or schools, volunteer in neighborhoods or church organizations, or are involved in social justice and activism, you understand the enormous power of groups to enact powerful and lasting change in the world. But how exactly do you design, build, and sustain effective groups? Based on the work of Nobel Prize winning economist Elinor Ostrom and grounded in contextual behavioral science, evolutionary science, and acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), Prosocial presents a practical, step-by-step approach to help you energize and strengthen your business or organization. Using the Prosocial model, you’ll learn to design groups that are more harmonious, have better member or employee retention, have better relationships with other groups or business partners, and have more success and longevity. Most importantly, you’ll learn to target the characteristics that foster cooperation and collaboration—key ingredients for any effective group.
Copublished with Context Press This collection of transcripts, organized and annotated by Michael P. Twohig and acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) founder Steven C. Hayes, guides you through ACT-based therapy processes session-by-session. The transcripts featured in ACT Verbatim present common situations that arise in clinical practice, while the commentary explains how to identify the six target ACT processes and help clients work through them to achieve psychological flexibility. For the most detailed view of ACT therapy, the clinical transcripts included here follow the development of one client struggling with anger, anxiety, and depression. Since ACT is process- rather than technique-oriented, this kind of in the moment analysis is a singularly effective way to learn to apply this therapeutic model. These transcripts will help you: •Identify client indicators that suggest you should target a specific process in therapy •Create useful exercises to foster client development in the core processes of ACT •Evaluate client advancement and structure sessions for maximum progress •Learn the different styles other therapists use to implement ACT in their own ways
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is a unique empirically-based psychological intervention that uses acceptance and mindfulness processes, and commitment and behaviour change processes to produce psychological flexibility. Steven C. Hayes, who helped develop ACT, and co-author Jason Lillis provide an overview of ACT's main influences and its basic principles In this succinct and understandable survey, the authors show how ACT illuminates the ways that language encourages unhelpful skirmishing in clients' psychic lives, and how to use ACT to help clients accept private experiences, become more mindful of thoughts, develop greater clarity about personal values, and commit to needed behaviour change. The latest edition in the Theories of Psychotherapy Series. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy examines the therapy's history and process, evaluates the therapy's evidence base and effectiveness, and suggests future directions in the therapy's development..
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is a new approach to psychotherapy that rethinks even the most basic assumptions of mental well-being. Starting with the assumption that the normal condition of human existence is suffering and struggle, ACT works by first encouraging individuals to accept their lives as they are in the here and now.
When terrible things happen in life and there’s little we can do to change them, the only option seems to be either anger or despair. This is the reality for prison inmates. They have no power over their circumstances. Many have long sentences, some have been wrongly accused and some even await execution. Their environment is often overcrowded, ugly, violent and full of noise, “like being in a rock concert all day,” as one man reported. There is nothing to look forward to and often no one to turn to. For the past twenty-five years, Liberation Prison Project has been a lifeline for prisoners, first in the United States and also in Australia, Italy, Mongolia, New Zealand and other countries, who turned to LPP, asking for Buddhist books and spiritual advice in an effort to find meaning in life when everything else has been lost. This book is a compilation of advice from Lama Zopa Rinpoche, the spiritual director of LPP, in response to letters from more than one hundred prisoners, mainly in the USA, edited into a coherent narrative. Rinpoche’s advice is that, actually, their prison “is nothing in comparison with their inner prison—the prison of anger, the prison of attachment, the prison of ignorance.” That prison, Rinpoche says, they can definitely change. And why should they? Because, simply put, happiness and suffering come from the mind, not the external world. The extent of the heartfelt compassion and love that Rinpoche offers the men who write to him is incredible. He empowers them to never give up on the development of their potential and their ability to help others. The advice in the book is not just for prisoners. It is for all of us.
