Customer Reviews

A Practical Guide to Acceptance and Commitment Therapy

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Very well written... Provides a great overview of the fundamentals of ACT and introduces the reader to several clinical applications... Should be considered as one of the essential reads for anyone interested in ACT or who is beginning to utilize this type treatment

Love this book and have been extremely happy to find this collection of ACT therapy book at these prices. I've found it in many bookstore for considerable more money.

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy is, at the present day, the more promising trend in psychotherapy. This book privides a wide vision and practical tools for the professional of Psychology

This book arrived in a timely fashion as described and in excellent condition. No issues with payment, very happy with transaction, would recommend seller to other Amazon customers.

This is simple. ACT therapy is not new, only psychotherapists like to think it is because the 'brand' has only been around since the mid 90's . Cognitive Behavioural Therapists like to say "ooh new" and so they've all hopped on the bandwagon. Fortunately there is an honesty to the authors and they gladly acknowledge that it's all generally based on millenia old principles of the world's great religions in that one has 'values' and 'openness' and 'openness to change' and one sees onself as being at the centre of the problem and (God forbid) the solution by being present in the moment.

Well, if that strikes you as being somewhat Buddhist/Christian/Muslim/Hindu and 'hardly very surprising' if you've practised any of these religions for a long time, then you'd be right. It's called 'psychological flexibility' for the therapists and "being open to being accountable and responsible" for the religionists. Well, now they've branded it in the name of science it is of course acceptable. <sigh!> is there nothing new under the sun?

Of course they've researched it. Of course! They can measure changes in people's lives when they've completed an ACT program. Goodness! Measurable results! What next. Strictly a 19th-21st Century phenomenon....of course! NOT!

Look back over (you guessed it) the millenia and you'll see that folk like William Wilberforce, Luther, St. Julien of Norwich, Guatama, Jesus the Christ, Krishna....all of them applied ACT daily. But, still, it's in another book (God forbid! Not the Scriptures, that would never do) and it's researched and statistically provable and looks good and fancy nobody said God had a thing to do with inspiring it so it's gotta be good.

Mind you, the sister therapy, DBT originated by Marsha Linehan is also profoundly centred on her Christian beliefs and anything you can get to read to compare the therapies (which are remarkably similar though not identical) is also a good read.

As a book, it's an excellent read, though slightly pompous but if you are an experienced, informed, academic and otherwise literate Christian or other relgious counsellor, there's nothing new in it. However it looks exceptionally good on the bookshelf alongside your ten authentically different translations/transliterations/versions of the Bible, a copy of "The Buddha and the Christ" by Leo Lefebure; "Manifest der Kommunistischen Partei" by Marx and Engels (to show that you consider all points of view and are truly ACT-open and psychologically flexible) and sits cheek by jowel with a nicely bound full 126 volume set oof Calvin's Principles with "Mein Kampf" by You-Know-Who and Churchill's six volume "The second world war" as book-ends and you've got the flexible lot.

On the other hand, if you are new to psychotherapy or long to go back to Skinner's good ole behavioural therapy, you'll fantasise, salivate and become generally gleeful over this book. The cognitivists are out (though only subtly) and good old behavioural correction BEFORE changing your mind is back on the agenda. Long live the Conditioners - Reality Testing is back on the agenda.

(The above is, of course, a tongue in cheek review, truthful only in parts and you get to choose which if you buy the book and review it expertly yourself....and "NO" I am not a secret buyer/provocateur for the author or publisher. This is all my own work :-) )