Customer Reviews

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for Anxiety Disorders: A Practitioner's Treatment Guide to Using Mindfulness, Acceptance, and Values-Based Behavior Change Strategies

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The authors have integrated an extremely large body of work on mindfulness, acceptance, emotion regulation, cognitive and behavioral treatments, and anxiety into a concise and readable book. To my knowledge, this is the first book to provide a step-by-step handbook for clinicians interested in using mindfulness and acceptance based techniques with clients who are suffering. Thus, this is an enormous asset to all health professionals.

The title of the book is deceptive because it is not just relevant to anxiety disorders. It is also relevant to understanding and working with general human suffering. Additionally, this is an excellent text for researchers and graduate students, as well as anyone who wants to apply these principles to their own lives (without necessarily seeking professional help).


Todd B. Kashdan, Ph.D.
Author of Curious?: Discover the Missing Ingredient to a Fulfilling Life

In the wake of the growing popularity of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), a number of books have been written that detail the ACT philosophy and approach to therapy. However, none is better than the recently published Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for Anxiety Disorders by Georg H. Eifert and John P. Forsyth. Although the book is focused on treating anxiety disorders, the principles and techniques that are discussed are so far reaching that they are pertinent to the treatment of other types of psychopathology. Thus, this book is simply not just a `must read' for those who specialize in treating anxiety disorders but rather it is a book from which any psychotherapist at any level could benefit. What sets this book apart from others that describe the ACT and other like-minded approaches to therapy is that the authors have made the concepts easily digestible and the text effortless to read. At the same time, however, the authors have managed to keep the philosophy and approach undiluted. The techniques and "how-tos" are also presented in caring detail and integrated along with guidelines for case conceptualization. Another asset of the book is that the authors make every attempt to ground their approach in the state of the art psychological science. Not all "how-to" therapy books are as successful as this one in translating science into practice.
The book is divided into three sections. The first section entails a brief discussion of the ACT approach as well as an overview of the anxiety disorders and how more traditional cognitive-behavioral approaches conceptualize and treat anxiety disorders. In the next section of the book, the construct of anxiety and the findings from previous research are reframed in a manner that is consistent with ACT. The distinction between what is changeable (a person's overt behavior) and what is not (what happens beneath the skin) is also given some discussion in this section. The final section of the book is a detailed protocol that can be used to treat anxiety disorders. The authors nicely take the reader through the protocol step by step, from treatment orientation through the practicing of mindfulness-type exercises to value-guided action.
All in all, Eifert and Forsyth's Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for Anxiety Disorders is a terrific piece of work that both clinicians and researchers will undoubtedly find useful in testing basic assumptions about human psychological functioning, informing treatment development efforts, and evaluating the helpfulness of ACT-oriented approaches. This book offers important direction and perpetuates the sense of hopefulness and excitement that we are, once and for all, on the verge of ameliorating human suffering.

Eifert and Forsyth come up with the first unified treatment for all anxiety disorders that actually works--an accomplishment that deserves a place in the history of psychotherapy. They do a superb job at making their protocol accessible to therapists that are new to acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), including students. In the first chapters of the book, the authors explain with both rigor and clarity what ACT is all about, and contrast it with CBT. In a nutshell, while CBT focuses on symptom management and reduction, ACT focuses on symptom acceptance and doing, in spite of all the inner stuff that may show up, for purposes of living a chosen, valued life. ACT claims convincingly that the road to a good life and mental health is not trying to feel good, but to become able to do what is required (i.e., act) to live a meaningful life, guided by a person's valued directions. ACT is a new, powerful therapy, already with remarkable empirical support, that combines the best of what the psychotherapy world has to offer, that is, acceptance- and mindfulness-based, as well as experiential and existential-humanistic therapies with behavioral interventions, in particular exposure. Maybe exposure work, perhaps the main contribution of the behavioral traidition to psychotherapy, best illustrates the contrats between ACT and CBT: while in CBT exposure is undertaken with the purpose of reducing symptomatology, in ACT it is undertaken with the purpose of increasing behavioral flexibility, i.e., expanding the behavioral repertoire of the person in the presence of anxiety provoking stimuli, and ultimately actualize willingness to move in the direction of the person's values. A truly extraordinary book, and a must read for any therapist who hopes to remain in the cutting edge of his profession. Finally, the editors at New Harbinger Publications deserve praise for the vision and creativity they have put into publishing ACT literature during the last few years. The book by Eifert and Forsyth is a remarkable outcome of such efforts.

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and other "third-wave" behavioral approaches are changing the way many view psychopathology and processes of psychotherapeutic change. Eifert and Forsyth's ACT for Anxiety Disorders is an engaging and easy-to-comprehend book that should serve as a great introduction for those interested in learning more. With both integrative discussion of the theory behind this work and detailed clinical guidelines, it is an excellent resource for anyone wishing to incorporate mindfulness and acceptance-based approaches into his or her clinical work and/or research. Students consistently praise this book's readability and relevance; especially appreciated are the handouts that may be tailored to the specifics of a given client or target problem.

This is a remarkably accessible guide to conducting ACT for anxious clients. Because this manual is one of the more accessible ACT books, I recommend reading it, even if you are not currently seeing a client w/ anxiety issues. A cd is included w/ all relevant forms that you can print out for client use.

Drs. Eifert and Forsyth have written an important book on the use of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) for the treatment of anxiety disorders. ACT represents a third-wave in the developing field of cognitive-behavioral therapy, especially as it is applied to anxiety disorders. A central aim of the book is to incorporate the common processes involved in the development of anxiety-related disorders to help produce meaningful treatment outcomes. ACT attempts to go beyond immediate goals of symptom resolution and places in the forefront of treatment the importance of "living." ACT focuses upon the acceptance of one's self and others, making choices about valued directions in life, and formulating a commitment to action. ACT uses a compassionate and mindfulness therapeutic format to help people accept and live with their anxiety-based problems, while simultaneously moving their life in a valued direction. This book outlines a session-by-session treatment approach and provides detailed practical guidelines for using ACT with anxious persons, and in places how to integrate ACT principles and techniques with successful cognitive-behavioral interventions. The book is clearly written and the authors provide a lucid discussion of applying ACT principles to a variety of clinical problems encountered in treating anxiety disorders. This book is a must for students, teachers, and practitioners working with anxiety disorders.

George B. Litchford, Ph.D., A.B.P.P.-Cl
Director of the Psychological Services Center
The University at Albany

Having been trained in the 70's as a behavior therapist, I moved away from BT in the 80's as I became disillusioned with the mechanistic quality of the approach. Eifert and Forsyth's book beautifully brings the best of behavior therapy together with a more humanistic and interpersonal focus to provide in ACT a truly new paradigm. The so-called "third wave" of behavior therapy incorporates much of the best of other schools while remaining grounded in solid science.
I have found ACT to be a potent weapon in dealing with the anxiety disorders that our clients bring to us. I highly recommend this book for any practitioner of any orientation to wants to broaden their perspective and become more effective in treating these most debilitating disorders.

This text is an important, timely, and significant work on the role of acceptance in anxiety and its disorders. This book is an excellent resource for clinicians, graduate students in training, undergraduates in advanced therapy or clinical/counseling courses, and anxiety researchers interested in acceptance and mindfulness factors. It will surely become an important guide and reference for many years to come, and stimulate further work in this important domain of study.

Michael J. Zvolensky, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Director, Anxiety and Health Research Laboratory
University of Vermont.

This book is wonderful - inspiring and life transforming! Eifert and Forsyth masterfully deliver an intensely practical guide for clinicians who want to learn how to use Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) with anxious clients. This is not another DSM based treatment guide for anxiety disorders. It a unified treatment protocol emphasizing common clinical processes that turn normal anxiety into life shattering problems. Everything about this book is well done. The authors deliver a fresh perspective of anxiety and its treatment while emphasizing the real clinical prize - helping anxious clients to get on with the task of living their lives with meaning, dignity, and purpose. At each turn, the authors clearly explain the rationales for the treatment and summarize the relevant research literature - yes, this protocol is backed by data. They also provide session-by-session structure for the treatment, but stress the importance of being flexible and adapting the approach to fit the unique needs of each client. The short of it is this -- the book, more than any other I have seen, delivers an outstanding array of clinical strategies, exercises, and a wealth of practical know how. Clinicians will learn how to put acceptance, mindfulness, and value-guided behavior change strategies into clinical action with anxious people who are suffering and stuck. Anyone new to ACT, or wishing to expand his or her clinical repertoire, will want this book. It is not a book that is easy to put down. It has changed how I treat persons suffering from anxiety and related problems. It has changed how I think about human suffering more generally.
-- Daniel J. Moran, Ph.D., BCBA
Director of the MidAmerican Psychological Institute, PC

Startling new way to treat anxiety disorders from a humanistic view aimed at creating a meaningful life despite high anxiety. The book is written very clearly and contains techniques such as metaphors and stories that are excellent and can be used with more traditional therapy.

To use ACT alone in therapy to treat anxiety disorders by just reading the clear instructions of the book and using the CD that comes with it may be dangerous. It is a counter intuitive approach that must be consistantly maintained; the therapist must be 100% present at all times. It is not just a technique that can be applied; the therapist must model this approach in real life or he/she could cause more harm than good. I would love to attend in person some training in this approach and have some live supervision (as is required for EMDR therapy). Definitly worth reading and staying in touch with any new research in this approach.