ACT Therapy
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy is a form of psychological therapy designed to encourage clients to take "action guided by core values."[1] The therapy uses techniques such as the Choice Point to guide clients to make choices more in line (i.e. more Aligned)) with what they believe and value in life. According to the founder, the aim of ACT is to "increase one's ability for mindful, values-guided action."[2]
Terminology
Cognitive Fusion, Experiential Avoidance
Committed action, taking effective psychological and physical action, guided by values.
Cognitive Defusion, the ability to not get entangled in one's thinking process
Fusion, getting "entangled" in one's thinking process.
Acceptance (opening up) to guilt, shame, and unwanted thoughts and experiences, to more easily process and disentangle.
Contact with the present moment (a.k.a. presence).
Choice Point. An effective therapeutic technique designed to "rapidly maps out problems, identifies sources of suffering, and formulates an ACT approach to handling them."[3]
Workability, the core of the "choice" a client must make. When examining behaviours and thoughts, the client askes is this thought or behaviour "workable," does it lead you towards actualizing the sort of life you want.
Based on Relational Frame Theory (RFT)
Notes
ACT is interesting from an LP perspective because it (vaguely) acknowledges the importance of being in Alignment. However, ACT steers clear of saying that we need to be in alignment with Highest Self.
ACT is also interesting because it acknowledges the need to take Action. However, ACT steers clear of saying that we need to be take action in order to heal and connect.
ACT covers two points of the LP Connection Framework, Action and Alignment.
ACT normalizes Psychic Sepsis and infection, saying that the mind has a "natural tendency to beat us up. "The mind likes to pull out a big stick and give us a hiding, to kick us when we're already down." [4] It's BS, of course. This is a profound misunderstanding, and putrid normalization, of Psychic Infection.
ACT individualizes complex psycho-social-spiritual problems. "In fact, almost every psychological problem that we know of--anxiety, depression, addiction, you name it--boils down to the basic process: we get hooked by difficult thoughts and feelings..."[5]
Further Reading
For an excellent introduction to ACT, see ACT Made Simple]
Footnotes
- ↑ Harris, Russ. Act Made Simple: A Quick-Start Guide to the ACT Basics and Beyond. New Harbinger Publications, 2019. https://amzn.to/2MWqp01
- ↑ Harris, Russ. Act Made Simple: A Quick-Start Guide to the ACT Basics and Beyond. New Harbinger Publications, 2019.
- ↑ Harris, Russ. Act Made Simple: A Quick-Start Guide to the ACT Basics and Beyond. New Harbinger Publications, 2019.
- ↑ Harris, Russ. Act Made Simple: A Quick-Start Guide to the ACT Basics and Beyond. New Harbinger Publications, 2019.
- ↑ Harris, Russ. Act Made Simple: A Quick-Start Guide to the ACT Basics and Beyond. New Harbinger Publications, 2019.
