Using acceptance and commitment therapy to empower the therapeutic relationship

From the Introduction:
"It is commonplace to emphasize the importance of the therapeutic relationship in clinical interventions. That connection is especially supported by a large body of mainly correlational evidence between outcomes and measures of the therapeutic alliance (Horvath, 2001) and a somewhat smaller body of evidence showing that relationship-focused treatment can be helpful (e.g., Kohlenberg, Kanter, Bolling, Parker, & Tsai, 2002). What is often not provided, however, is a workable model for how to empower the therapeutic relationship in therapy more generally.

Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT, said as a single word, not initials; Hayes, Wilson, & Strosahl, 1999) is a mindfulness, acceptance, and values-focused approach to clinical intervention. ACT, in a relatively short period of time, has shown a surprising breadth of impact, from diabetes management to coping with psychosis, from work stress to smoking (see Hayes, Luoma, Bond, Masuda, & Lillis (2006) for a recent meta-analysis of ACT process and outcome data). We believe that this same model provides a clear guide for the development of more empowering therapeutic relationships.

In this chapter we will outline the ACT model of psychological flexibility and its basic foundations. We will show how the model seems to specify functional components of the therapeutic relationship that can be applied to the conduct of many types of therapy. This chapter will not go into great detail about how to establish these processes, since ACT has already been applied in controlled studies to both therapists and clients, and the technology for the two is quite similar. Book-length sources on ACT technology are readily available (e.g., Eifert & Forsyth, 2005; Hayes et al., 1999; Hayes & Strosahl, 2004)...."