Holmes, E. P., Georgescu, S., & Liles, W. (2006). Further Delineating the Applicability of Acceptance and Change to Private Responses: The Example of Dialectical Behavior Therapy. The Behavior Analyst Today, 7(3), 301-324.
In the last decade, empirical support has emerged for therapies emphasizing mindfulness and acceptance. Increasingly, clinicians are integrating these strategies into clinical packages that have traditionally focused on change and control of cognitive content. The authors suggest that a mindfulness/acceptance approach is grounded in a set of basic assumptions that are not compatible with strategies that focus on change and control of private responses. The authors illustrate this point using the example of Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT). Inclusion of cognitive change strategies with mindfulness to address cognitive content creates a contradiction that is theoretically unworkable and experientially confusing. The authors describe a form of DBT in which cognitive change strategies are replaced with the principles and practices of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) as an approach to private responses, and cognitive content in particular.