Acceptance and Commitment Therapy.

[Ryukil]

Has anyone tried this? Seems very promising.

[sial72]

Never heard of it, what is it about?

[Ryukil]

It's about accepting your symptoms and giving up control methods.

[Leah1971]

I've heard of it, but never tried it.

[sial72]

So it kind of follows Claire Weekes method, that sounds good! Very interesting, if you do it let us know how you get in.

[MyNameIsTerry]

I haven't tried it and don't know much about it but I have seen people on here using it. There is a thread someone put on the Therapy board last year about their experiences with it so worth a look.

I think swgrl09 has had experience off it so she will probably spot your thread.

Tony, a new member, has mentioned it has been something he has used a lot:

http://www.nomorepanic.co.uk/showthread.php?t=169503&page=12

---------- Post added at 05:06 ---------- Previous post was at 05:04 ----------


So it kind of follows Claire Weekes method, that sounds good! Very interesting, if you do it let us know how you get in.

In some ways, yes, but Weekes could be seen in various therapies as well. It really a technique that uses acceptance & Mindfulness. From being involved with some of the threads with JonJones, I found some of the things Weekes promoted to be in Mindfulness from my experiences with it.

Its all about being in the present, seeing that there are unpleasant feelings but not acting upon them and not practice avoidance.

[TonyBDavies]

Acceptance and Commitment therapy is the practice of mindful awareness of thoughts feelings without attempting to interact with them. The hypothesis is that conscious interaction with thoughts and feelings only exacerbates and keeps them in conscious awareness when it is more desirable that they dissipate as in the case of intrusive or obsessive thoughts etc.
It takes practice to be consciously aware of thoughts/feelings without giving in to the urge or habit of interacting with them. It's the interaction with feelings/thoughts that keeps them alive in conscious awareness where they become intrusive or obsessive.
So without giving them the active attention they need to become more entrenched, they instead begin to dissipate and fade away on their own accord.
I'm reading a book called 'Overcoming Depersonalization Disorder' by Fugen Neziroglu that includes Acceptance and Commitment therapy skills for coping with numbness, mind body disconnection, and the feeling that you live in an unreal world. It's very good so far. But I also own most of the relavent ACT books I could find on Amazon that were aimed at the lay reader. You don't need to find a therapist to teach you ACT skills. My therapist introduced ACT to me as something that she thought fit my needs, but as for the actual learning itself, you can do that on your own. There is one book that has a CD of a therapist talking and taking the listener through an ACT session. I'll try and find the books title, it's one that my therapist lent me not one I own.

Here's a site of the author of a couple of very good ACT books I own. There are MP3s for sale as downloads that talk us through an ACT mindfulness session. I own 'The Happiness Trap', 'reality Slap' and 'ACT with Love' books by this author and both books were worth reading and studying.
http://www.actmindfully.com.au/

[agnes]

My local counselling organisation ran a six week ACT course, which I attended. It was quite helpful, I just need to try to apply what I've learned. I think The Happiness Trap is one of the best ACT books.

[MyNameIsTerry]

Tony,

I don't know anything about it really but from what you have said, it is very heavily influenced by Mindfulness. As I understand it, it has taken what it needs from Mindfulness so most likely the most core issues which you have explained excellently.

I've seen The Happiness Trap in book stores, I wasn't aware it was an ACT book. As I understand it, ACT is not about pursuing happiness so given the title does that mean that chasing happiness is a trap because you are trying to hard and should just let it appear naturally?

[Ryukil]

I think The Happiness Trap is a way of making a popular self-help book out of ACT principles, but it's still useful to anxiety sufferers because it describes allowing all of your bad feelings to be there and getting on with your life without trying to force the bad feelings away...because then you just create more stress and bad feelings...i.e., you are creating the anxiety.

[MyNameIsTerry]

I'm not sure that sounds like a Mindfulness thing then, sounds a bit Weekes though. I guess I would have to read it, if I see it in the shops I'll have to read some for free :D

[swgrl09]

Sorry for seeing this late in the game, been a bit busy.

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy is kind of a "third wave" of CBT where, as you said, the basic concept is accepting your emotions, be it anxiety, depression, etc. It builds off the idea of the more you push something away, the stronger it pushes back. For some reason we learn that we have to avoid difficult emotions at all cost, but in actuality, life is much easier to live when you can ride the wave and accept the emotions instead.

I have been using a book called "Get out of your mind and into your life." It's a work book through ACT that breaks it down into really easy to follow steps and is a good read. I don't know if I am allowed to promote it, but I don't make any money off it -I gave them my money to buy the book instead, haha.

---------- Post added at 07:44 ---------- Previous post was at 07:42 ----------

And Terry, you are right, it isn't about "pursuing happiness." It is about accepting ALL emotions without judgment, so much more like mindfulness, as you described. I have not read The Happiness Trap, but maybe from the title it is about ACT principles, as it could be referring to being mistakenly thought that we have to feel happy 100% of the time? I am just guessing by the title though.