Does anyone know about Acceptance and Commitment Therapy?

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ponies
Blue Jay
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06 Jun 2011, 4:53 am

Anyone know about this?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acceptance_and_commitment_therapy

This has been raised with me as something I might like to try.

What I can see is that the theory is I go around feeling sad/depressed/anxious/whatever, then saying to myself "thanks a lot brain", ignoring the feelings, and then saying to yourself, "gee, I have so many things to look forward to, life is great".

What the heck? What kind of therory is this?



serenity
Veteran
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06 Jun 2011, 7:53 am

Yes, I have been doing it for about 6 months now. When I was diagnosed that was the therapy that was suggested to me for my anxiety and depression. There's way more to it than just noticing your emotions and moving on. It is hard. At least for me, it was/is. It's based on Relational Frame Theory and Mindfulness, as well as Buddhist principles. I have found it to be helpful. The Book 'Get Out Of Your Mind and Into Your Life' by Steven Hayes is pretty good. I think the biggest change it's made for me is that you have to slow down and feel your feelings and label them. Due to a fair amount of alexithymia this is very hard for me and many others on the spectrum. If nothing else, it will at least help to identify emotions and learn where they come from so that you can feel more in control. I tend to not notice I am feeling anything until it's approaching meltdown status, and then I can't always figure out how it got there, or why.



ACT-KC
Emu Egg
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15 Dec 2011, 10:18 am

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy works well with Asperger's/HFA. There are clinical studies being done to validate effectiveness (see Tony Attwood's site). My clinical experience as a psychotherapist (and using it on myself) has also demonstrated to me how powerful it can be.

I recently published an ebook about neurodiversity and spectrum disorders but I will not mention the title as I don't feel it would be right to advertise or promote this within a post, but there are a vast amount of books on ACT (some mentioned in the previous person's post) by Steven Hayes, Russ Harrris, Kelly G. Wilson, and others.


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