Third-Wave Therapies (Week 9)

Question 1

Who are the key figures in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy?

Answer 1

Steven Hayes
Russ Harris

Question 2

What is the key focus of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy?

Answer 2

Problems reflect psychological inflexibility. This can take the form of:
-emotional inflexibility
-cognitive inflexibility
-attentional inflexibility
-failures in perspective-taking
-lack of chosen values
-inability to broaden and build habits of values-based action

Question 3

What are some signs of psychological inflexibility?

Answer 3

1. Fusion with thoughts
2. Evaluation of experience
3. Avoidance of experience
4. Reason-giving for behavior

Question 4

What are some signs of psychological flexibility?

Answer 4

1. Acceptance of thoughts and feelings.
2. Choosing a valued direction
3. Taking action

Question 5

What are the points of the ACT hexaflex of “Commitment and Behavior Change Processes”?

Answer 5

[Postive (Negative)]
1. Contact with the present moment/”Be here now”
(Conceptualized past and feared future/Absorption in past or future)

2. Values/”Know what matters”
   (Lack of values clarity/being embedded in feelings, memories, etc.)
3. Committed Action/”Do what it takes”
   (Inaction, impulsivity, or avoidance/”Stuckness”)
4. Self as Context/”Pure Awareness”
   (Attachment to conceptualized self/I am what I think of myself)
5. Cognitive Defusion/”Watch your thinking”
   (Fusion with thoughts)
6. Acceptance/”Dropping the Struggle” and opening up to anxiety, etc.
   (Experiential Avoidance)

Question 6

What are the goals of ACT?

Answer 6

To create a rich, full, and meaningful life while accepting the pain that inevitably goes with it.

Allowing action to be guided by values.

Taking action mindfully, fully engaged in whatever you’re doing.

A changed relationship with symptoms so they no longer hold one back from valued living.

Question 7

What does ACT stand for?

Answer 7

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy

Question 8

What are some ACT strategies to encourage contact with and acceptance of present-moment experiences?

Answer 8

1. Mindfulness (observing thoughts, emotions, and present motion experiencing without judgment or reaction).
2. Breathing strategies.
3. Grounding/centering strategies.

Question 9

What are some ACT strategies to encourage cognitive defusion?

Answer 9

1. Observing a thought with detachment (“I am [thought]” becomes ‘I am having the thought that . . . “
2. Repeating a thought over and over, out loud, until it just becomes a meaningless sound.
3. Drawing attention to experiential avoidance.
4. Clarifying and enacting values.
5. Imagining a thought in the voice of a cartoon character.
6. Singing a thought to the tune of “Happy birthday.”
7. Silently saying, “Thanks, mind,” in gratitude for such an interesting thought.

Question 10

Who was the founder of Dialectical Behavioral Therapy?

Answer 10

Marsha Linehan