Main description:

Since the original publication of this seminal work, acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) has come into its own as a widely practiced approach to helping people change. This book provides the definitive statement of ACT--from conceptual and empirical foundations to clinical techniques--written by its originators. ACT is based on the idea that psychological rigidity is a root cause of a wide range of clinical problems. The authors describe effective, innovative ways to cultivate psychological flexibility by detecting and targeting six key processes: defusion, acceptance, attention to the present moment, self-awareness, values, and committed action. Sample therapeutic exercises and patient-therapist dialogues are integrated throughout.

New to This Edition
*Reflects tremendous advances in ACT clinical applications, theory building, and research.
*Psychological flexibility is now the central organizing focus.
*Expanded coverage of mindfulness, the therapeutic relationship, relational learning, and case formulation.
*Restructured to be more clinician friendly and accessible; focuses on the moment-by-moment process of therapy.

Contents:

I. Foundations and the Model
1. The Dilemma of Human Suffering
2. The Foundations of ACT: Taking a Functional Contextual Approach
3. Psychological Flexibility as a Unified Model of Human Functioning
II. Functional Analysis and Approach to Intervention
4. Case Formulation: Listening with ACT Ears, Seeing with ACT Eyes, with Emily K. Sandoz
5. The Therapeutic Relationship in ACT
6. Creating a Context for Change: Mind versus Experience
III. Core Clinical Processes
7. Present-Moment Awareness, with Emily K. Sandoz
8. Dimensions of Self
9. Defusion
10. Acceptance
11. Connecting with Values
12. Committed Action
IV. Building a Progressive Scientific Approach
13. Contextual Behavioral Science and the Future of ACT