What is this new Acceptance/Commitment Training that your textbook is droning on about? Acceptance/Commitment Training or ACT is a part of the third wave cognitive and behavior therapies (McHugh, 2011). ACT has roots in Relational Frame Theory, and this is seen though the concept that it is our ability to have language that can cause bigger psychological issues within us (Roche et al., 2001). One of the major differences between ACT and RFT is that ACT works by essentially undermining the negative effects of language and working with the positive effects of language (McHugh, 2011).
But how is ACT actually broken down, what does ACT consist of? The main goal of ACT is to gain psychological flexibility, and to achieve this the Hexaflex Diagram is used as a model (see below for an example of the diagram). This diagram contains six points; Contact with the Present, Acceptance, Self as Context, Cognitive Defusion, Committed Actions, and Values. The following is an explanation of each of the six processes.
Contact with the present is most relatable to the concept of mindfulness. This can be achieved by guided breathing or other meditation exercises.
Acceptance is the acknowledgment of your thoughts, and this is aimed to help the individual stop avoiding thoughts so that personal growth can occur (McHugh, 2011). An activity to help facilitate acceptance would be to have the individual pull against something in order to show that however much you try to pull away the more constant the thoughts may be.
Self as Context is the separation of self from thoughts. This is aimed to help individuals see that their stressors and problems do not need to consume them. An exercise to help show this is to have the individual put their palms out, and ask them to label each one with a stressor. Then have the individual put the hands to their face and slowly retract them. As their vision becomes less blocked their stressors are farther away, and this helps to separate them from their thoughts.
Cognitive Defusion is best explained by an activity that can help enforce it. Ask the individual to "blow" their problems into balloons. Then have the person hold all the balloons and try running. Running will difficult, and to follow you can tape the balloons to the individual and have them try to run again. This time running will be easier. This particular exercise is to show that is better to run with your problems, then it is against them.
Values are then looked at, and chosen based on the individuals beliefs and goals.
Closely related are the committed actions that are identified to align with those values in order to help achieve their goals while staying true to their values.
By going through these six processes the individual would be working towards achieving psychological flexibility.
While no theory is perfect, this is an extremely intriguing new way of looking at behaviorally centered therapies. It offers much promise, and is continuously being studied and reviewed in order to ensure the best version is being offered to clients.
McHugh, L. (2011). A new approach in psychotherapy: ACT (acceptance and commitment therapy). World Journal of Biological Psychiatry, 12, 76–79. https://doiorg.proxy.elmhurst.edu/10.3109/15622975.2011.603225
Roche, B., Barnes-Holmes, Y., Barnes-Holmes, D., Stewart, I., & O’Hara, D. (2002). Relational Frame Theory: A new paradigm for the analysis of social behavior. The Behavior Analyst, 1(25), 75-91.