Acceptance and Commitment Therapy: An Experiential Approach to Behavior Change [Hardcover]

Steven C. Hayes PhD (Author), Kirk D. Strosahl (Author), Kelly G. Wilson Phd (Author), Kelly G. Wilson (Author), Steven C. Hayes (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1572304812 | ISBN-13: 978-1572304819 | Publication Date: August 15, 1999 | Edition: 1

The prevailing view among therapists as well as clients is 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. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is a unique psychotherapeutic approach that addresses this issue by altering the very ground on which rational change strategies rest. Within a coherent theoretical and philosophical framework, ACT illuminates the ways clients understand and perpetuate their difficulties through language. The book shows how interventions based on metaphor, paradox, and experiential exercises can enable clients to break free of language traps and make contact with thoughts, feelings, memories, and physical sensations that have been feared and avoided. Detailed guidelines are presented for helping clients recontextualize and accept these private events, develop greater clarity about personal values, and commit to needed behavior change. Providing in one volume a scientifically sound theory of psychopathology and a practical treatment model, and illustrated by a wealth of clinical examples, this is an important resource for practitioners and students in the full range of behavioral health care fields.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A significant and novel contribution....This book presents an innovative approach to helping clients accept their thoughts and feelings and overcome experiential avoidance. The authors delineate a solid clinical rationale and provide clear guidelines for ACT implementation. A real strength of this book is the chapters on each stage of treatment, which detail a wealth of strategies and interventions and include excellent exercises, therapist-client dialogues, and pointers for practice." --Leslie S. Greenberg, PhD, York University, Canada

"This book offers the clinician a theoretical, philosophical, and practical guide to a new and potentially powerful model of psychotherapy. Focusing on the context and process of change, Hayes sets out a clear plan to help those clients who, as he puts it, feel unable to find their way out of life's ongoing traps. His blueprint for change encourages a strategic and technical eclecticism and the building of a strong working alliance. The pragmatic and reasonable approach described in this book will be of great interest to therapists from any disciplinary background. It will also serve as an excellent text in graduate-level counseling and psychotherapy courses." --Arthur Freeman, EdD, ABPP, Professor and Chair, Department of Psychology, Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine

"This book offers the clinician a theoretical, philosophical, and practical guide to a new and potentially powerful model of psychotherapy. Focusing on the context and process of change, Hayes sets out a clear plan to help those clients who, as he puts it, feel unable to find their way out of life's ongoing traps. His blueprint for change encourages a strategic and technical eclecticism and the building of a strong working alliance. The pragmatic and reasonable approach described in this book will be of great interest to therapists from any disciplinary background. It will also serve as an excellent text in graduate-level counseling and psychotherapy courses." --Arthur Freeman, EdD, ABPP, Professor and Chair, Department of Psychology, Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine

"Once in a while, there is a unique contribution to psychotherapy. Even more rare is the grounding of that contribution in sound philosophy, on the one hand, and firm data, on the other. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy represents such an effort. In a truly creative leap forward, Hayes and his colleagues present a new approach to behavior change that is 'must' reading for everyone in the field of psychotherapy or behavior therapy, as well as students entering the profession. Challenging the assumptions and methods of cognitive therapy, this is among the most significant new approaches to behavior change of the past three decades." --David H. Barlow, PhD, Director, Center for Anxiety and Related Disorders, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts

From the Back Cover

This book offers the clinician a theoretical, philosophical, and practical guide to a new and potentially powerful model of psychotherapy. Focusing on the context and process of change, Hayes and his colleagues set out a clear plan to help those clients who, as they put it, feel unable to find their way out of life's ongoing traps. Their blueprint for change encourages a strategic and technical eclecticism and the building of a strong working alliance. The pragmatic and reasonable approach described in this book will be of great interest to therapists from any disciplinary background. It will also serve as an excellent text in graduate-level counseling and psychotherapy courses (Arthur Freeman, EdD, ABPP).

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: The Guilford Press; 1 edition (August 15, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1572304812
• ISBN-13: 978-1572304819
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #668,351 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

112 of 114 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Challenging Current Thinking in Clinical Psychology, July 13, 2000

By 

Dr Andrew Page (Nedlands, Western Australia Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Acceptance and Commitment Therapy: An Experiential Approach to Behavior Change (Hardcover)

Hayes and colleagues have made an excellent contribution with their book Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) by drawing together many years of theoretical work and practice into a very readable work. The first half of the book outlines the theoretical foundations of ACT. Many recent books in clinical psychology claim to offer a new psychotherapeutic technique or a new approach within a particular conceptual framework. In contrast, Hayes and colleagues present a new and comprehensive conceptual foundation for psychotherapy. They seek to challenge some of the cherished notions in mental health (e.g., that mental disorders always arise from abnormality) and critique some of the central ideas in many popular therapies (e.g., the idea in Cognitive Behaviour Therapy that mental health will be improved by changing the content of one's thoughts). Their argument identifies language and our use of it as both one of the key reasons for humanity's success and our inability to rid ourselves of many mental health issues. For a reflective practitioner or academic, the arguments presented will give the reader much food for thought.

The second half of the book outlines the practice of ACT and as such illustrates the fist part. This sections is excellent in that even thought it uses language to describe ACT, it attempts to use the principles of ACT upon the reader and gives the reader examples to work though at the end of each chapter. Thus, the reader cannot emerge at the end of the book without having been changed by reading the book.

The ability to critique current thinking in clinical psychology is not novel, but the ability to present an alternative is much more rare. Hayes and colleages have done so and have presented it in a way that will be accessible to practitioners and researchers from many different theoretical orientations. A challenging and thought-provoking book.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Still the core ACT book, April 3, 2008

By 

Jason L (Oregon) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Acceptance and Commitment Therapy: An Experiential Approach to Behavior Change (Paperback)

In my opinion, this is still the core ACT book to read. This book is just packed with a wealth of information, insights, and novel approaches to clinical problems. There is no other ACT book written to date that matches this one in its scope, overview, and coherence in terms of explaining the ACT model and linking it to the basic behavioral principles with underlie the approach. Even though I've had this book for almost a decade, I still refer to it's dogeared and underlined pages almost every week. If you are a therapist interested in ACT, this book should be in your hands.

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Acceptance and Commitment Therapy:An Experiential Approach to Behaviour Change, September 8, 2005

By 

Luana Morris "Luana" (Australia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Acceptance and Commitment Therapy: An Experiential Approach to Behavior Change (Paperback)

A really good overview and also in depth approach to a new therapy that could well be the next CBT - easy to read and with some very clear examples and analogies. I recommend it to anyone that has found that CBT has some gaps in regards to recurrance and behaviour change.