Practicing Acceptance and Commitment Therapy with Head and Heart: Understanding the Why Behind Each Intervention

This book will help readers balance the essential scientific concepts underlying Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) with their clinical practice, reconnecting ACT with its behavioural therapeutic roots and Relational Frame Theory.

Clinicians often struggle to understand the science (the “head”) that should underpin their clinical practice/work (the “heart”). Without a core understanding of the scientific concepts underlying ACT, clinicians struggle to understand how to adapt ACT in practice for specific client or group situations and why. In response to that, this book is structured to help readers understand the why of each intervention and how to use that to guide the next move. Through a mix of explanations, personal examples, exercises for the therapist, short cases, and metaphors, the book provides a series of science‑driven concepts that teach the reader to use the ACT toolbox with skilful interventions.

This manual is a must‑read for any ACT trainee or practitioner, helping them systematically connect techniques with the rationale for their use.

Lieve Bruyninx is the owner of Factor Psy, a mental health care training institute. She is a psychologist and peer‑reviewed ACT trainer with 20 years of behaviour therapy expertise.

Yvonne Barnes‑Holmes is the Co‑Founder of Perspectives Ireland and Co‑Developer of Process‑Based Behaviour Therapy (PBBT). She has 25 years of experience in behaviour therapy.

Ciara McEnteggart is the Co‑Founder of Perspectives Ireland and Co‑Developer of Process‑Based Behaviour Therapy (PBBT). She has 15 years of experience in behaviour therapy.

Marjolein Vleugel has been working as a Healthcare Psychologist for more than 20 years. She is the founder and head trainer of Expertise Centrum ACT.

Roy Thewissen, PhD, is a clinical psychologist and behavioural therapist. He works as a freelancer and in the pain department at Adelante rehabilitation clinic in the Netherlands.