Acceptance and Commitment Therapy

Moving toward a life worth living

Contact with Present moment

(be here now)

Acceptance (open up to the difficult stuff)

Values

(know what matters)

Defusion

(watch your thinking)

Committed action

(do what it takes)

Self-as-context

(the Noticing self)

I know this can be confusing, breaking it down into the following 3 skills can sum it up a bit better:

1) OPEN UP: Am I able to detach from distressing experiences and take a non-judgmental, accepting stance towards painful material? Allow difficult thoughts/feelings/memories to come, stay, and flow on by?

2) BE PRESENT: Am I able to experience the present moment and take perspective on the story I am telling myself? Paying attention with flexibility, openness, curiosity, and kindness?

3) DO WHAT MATTERS: Am I connected with my values? And are my actions in alignment with those things that matter most to me?

-Strosahl et al. (Brief Interventions for Radical Change) & Russ Harris (Happiness Trap)

The goal of ACT is to help people develop PSYCHOLOGICAL FLEXIBILITY. Some fancy word which means: “the ability to be present, focused on and engaged in what we’re doing; to open fully to our experience, allowing our cognitions and emotions to be as they are in this moment; and to act effectively, guided by our values.” - Russ Harris (ACT Made Simple)

A: Acknowledge your thoughts and feelings

C: Come back into your body

E: Engage in what you’re Doing

Link to audio

Be Present

• Contact the present moment instead of being hooked by thoughts of the past/future - paying attention with curiosity and flexibility.
  
• 2 parts of the mind: “Noticing (or observing) self” VS. “Thinking self” - thinking self is on autopilot generating thoughts, beliefs, memories, fantasies, etc., whereas, noticing self is silently paying attention and taking perspective.
  

“Mindfulness refers to a set of psychological skills for effective living, which all involve paying attention with flexibility, openness, curiosity, and kindness.”

- Russ Harris, 2018

Practice engaging your noticing/observing self!

Be curious like a child!

Open Up

• Defusion or unhooking = taking a step back from our thoughts, seeing them for what they really are (a river of words). “We don’t challenge them, distract from them, or push them away; instead, we hold them lightly. We allow them to guide us when useful, but we don’t allow them to dominate us.” - Trauma Focused ACT
  
• Acceptance and expansion = making room for difficult thoughts/emotions, letting them stay, and flow on by.
  

Unhooking strategies include things like:

• Using metaphors (see this list: Defusion Strategies)
  
• Thanking the mind: “thank you for the warnings brain, I see your perspective but right now I am engaging in what matters”
• Saying our thoughts in a silly voice/singing - this is not to minimize the stress but to change our relationship with the thought itself
• Journaling
  

Do what matters

• Figure out what matters most.
  
• Commit to making towards moves (behaviours that take us towards the life we want to live). Sounds simple but physical/emotional/psychological pain takes us away from the life we want (away moves).
• Values brainstorm - click here (page 36)
• See below: choice point exercise - found in Trauma Focused ACT
  

Choice Point Exercise Example

Yelling at my partner

Worrying

Drinking too much

Avoiding friends

Staying up late

Away

Towards

Hooked

Unhooked

Exercising

Drinking moderately

Talking calmly/patience

Seeing friends

Sleep routine

Anxiety, anger, flashbacks, palpitations, sweating, sadness, guilt, “I’m unlovable, weak, messed up”, sleep problems, work/financial stress

“Goals can be achieved or ‘crossed off’, whereas values are an ongoing process. For example, if you want to be a loving, caring, supportive partner, that is a value – an ongoing process.” - Values Worksheet, Russ Harris (2008, p.36)

Summary of some of the key skills:

Skill #1: Defusion = “[unhook] from painful and unpleasant thoughts, self-limiting beliefs, and self-criticism, they have less influence over you”

Skill #2: Expansion = “making room for painful thoughts and feelings and allowing them to flow through you, without getting swept away by them”

Skill #3: Connection (to the moment) = “living fully in the present instead of dwelling on the past or worrying about the future” - The Illustrated Happiness Trap by Russ Harris

“There are many good reasons why we avoid our feelings: they’re uncomfortable, or they’re not the feelings we think we should be having, or we’re afraid of how they might hurt others, or afraid of what they could mean - what they might reveal about the choices we’ve made or the ones we will make going forward. But as long as you’re avoiding your feelings, you’re denying reality. And if you try to shut something out and say, “I don’t want to think about it,” I guarantee that you’re going to think about it. So invite the feeling in, sit down with it, keep it company. And then decide how long you’re going to hold on to it. Because you’re not a fragile little somebody. It’s good to face every reality. To stop fighting and hiding. To remember that a feeling is just a feeling - it’s not your identity.”

-The Gift by Edith Eger, Psychologist and Holocaust Survivor

(Read her book called The Choice first)