Contributed by: Francis De Groot Part II: The clinical methods of ACT Chapters 3 to 9 present the ACT concepts and strategies. ACT = Acceptance and Commitment Therapy = Accept, Choose and Take action Goal: to move in the direction of chosen values, and accept the automatic effects of life's difficulties. Barriers: experiential avoidance & cognitive fusion Source of these barriers: verbal Act stages focus on shift from content of experience to context of experience Why?: to enable clients to pursue valued goals in life. During treatment metaphors, paradoxes, and experiential exercises are frequently used to undermine the traps of literal language and pliance. Metaphors:
- are not specific & proscriptive (less pliance)
- are more like pictures (more experiential)
- are easily remembered
Therapeutic paradox:
- not the classic therapeutic paradox to eliminate certain sympoms: e.g. "don't obey me". They rely on pliance
- = inherent paradox: functional contradictions between literal and functional properties of a verbal event: e.g. "try to be spontaneous"
Experiential exercises: To help contact potentially troublesome thoughts, feelings, memories, ...
- experience in a different context
- allows experience to be observed & studied experientially
- superior to discussing
Summary: More:
- pursuing of valued goals
- direct experience
- acceptance of negative experiences (thoughts, feelings, memories, bodily sensations, ...)
Less:
- literal language
- pliance
Use of: less "literalizing" verbal modalities: metaphors, paradoxes, experiential exercises Focus on: WHAT DOES YOUR EXPERIENCE TELL YOU? This also goes for therapists? Let's go for some tracking, not for pliance!