Acceptance and Commitment Therapy: An Experiential Approach to Behavior Change

Most therapists and clients believe that a more vital life can be attained by overcoming negative thoughts and feelings. Yet despite efforts to achieve this goal, many individuals continue to suffer with behavior disorders, adjustment difficulties, and low life satisfaction. This volume presents a unique psychotherapeutic approach that addresses the problem of psychological suffering by altering the very ground on which rational change strategies rest. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) focuses in particular on the ways clients understand and perpetuate their difficulties through language. Providing a comprehensive overview of the approach and detailed guidelines for practice, this book shows how interventions based on metaphor, paradox, and experiential exercises can enable clients to break free of language traps, overcome common behavioral problems, and enhance general life satisfaction.

Steven C. Hayes, PhD, is Nevada Foundation Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of Nevada. His career has focused on the analysis of the nature of human language and cognition and the application of this to the understanding and alleviation of human suffering. Among other offices, he has been President of Division 25 of the American Psychological Association, of the American Association of Applied and Preventive Psychology, and of the Association for Advancement of Behavior Therapy (AABT).

Kirk D. Strosahl, PhD, is Research and Training Director for the Mountainview Consulting Group, where he provides consultation and training on integrative primary care medicine, outcomes management in applied delivery systems, clinical management of the suicidal patient, and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). Dr. Strosahl began his career as the Director of the Suicidal Behaviors Research Clinic at the University of Washington, where, along with Marsha Linehan, PhD, and John Chiles, MD, he helped elaborate the use of acceptance and mindfulness strategies with suicidal borderline patients. From 1984 through 1998 he worked as a staff psychologist and as the Research Evaluation Manager for the Division of Behavioral Health Services at Group Health Cooperative of Puget Sound, where he became a recognized expert in integration of behavioral health services into primary care medicine, and in the dissemination of empirically supported therapies into managed care settings.

Kelly G. Wilson, PhD, is Associate Director of the Center for Contextual Psychology at the University of Nevada, Reno. He has directed a National Institute on Drug Abuse grant since 1993, examining both Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and 12-Step facilitation treatment of substance abuse. An author of over 20 articles and chapters, his interests include the integration of basic and applied behavioral science, behavioral analysis of nontraditional behavioral topics, the interface of ACT and other acceptance-oriented traditions, and the application of acceptance strategies to substance abuse.