Acceptance & Commitment Therapy for Depression

Dr David Gillanders
(Clinical Psychology, University of Edinburgh)

[@christophergraham2595]

David, this is really very good. A clear introduction to ACT. Recommend to anyone as a introduction to ACT.

[@fredjones5137]

Thank you Dr Gillanders! This was excellent.

[@raymondlai4656]

Dear Global Health Academy :)I would like to say, thank you, to you, for taking the time and effort to both upload and share this video with the youtube community. Thanks!

[@lindahebb4832]

Thank you for posting

[@AdamFraserDr]

Super helpful and clear. Great job.

[@AutumnleafMind]

thanks for posting..clear and concise

[@jamesmarris4291]

Thank you for sharing, very nice overview of ACT and how it relates to CBT and other cognitive therapies.

[@kseniav586]

Such a good talk! Very nice overview. I especially liked the metaphor with looking at a room through your fingers.

[@DFHobbs]

Great presentation. Very thorough overview and much appreciated.

[@johnbutler1513]

please see my response.....

[@DFHobbs]

John Butler, I appreciate that in your experience ACT may not have been helpful. Glad you've found help that was. Please note that few treatments provide universally the same experience. Too many variables in play. Also want to share that I've experienced ACT as a successful therapy for many.

[@ayrainstituteofmentalhealth]

Very nice presentation

[@saeedaminamin7933]

Great presentation.thanks

[@devanshigala]

Thankyou

[@AlanPhan128]

TLDR: Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) focuses on increasing psychological flexibility through acceptance, mindfulness, and commitment, in order to combat depression and promote effective living. 1. 00:00 🧠 Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) combines mindfulness and behavioral psychology to promote effective living, with historical roots in behaviorism as a rejection of previous psychodynamic concerns. 1.1 Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) combines mindfulness and behavioral psychology to promote effective living across different conditions, with historical roots in behaviorism as a rejection of previous psychodynamic psychoanalytic concerns. 1.2 Behaviorism during that time had different flavors and not just one voice. 2. 01:55 🧠 Skinner's approach to behaviorism included studying thoughts and feelings as behaviors, leading to modern therapies like acceptance and commitment therapy for depression. 2.1 Behaviorists reject the idea of studying thoughts and feelings, but BF Skinner had a different approach to behaviorism. 2.2 Skinner believed that everything an organism does, including thinking and feeling, is behavior, and he aimed to study the inner world with the same precision as overt behaviors. 2.3 Thoughts and feelings influence behavior, leading to the emergence of modern approaches to behaviorism such as acceptance and commitment therapy and dialectical behavior therapy. 3. 05:06 🧠 ACT uses acceptance, mindfulness, and commitment to increase psychological flexibility, allowing for greater choice and persistence in behavior despite obstacles. 3.1 Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT) is a therapy approach that uses acceptance, mindfulness, commitment, and behavior change processes to produce greater psychological flexibility. 3.2 Psychological flexibility is about being present, mindful, and accepting in order to have greater choice and flexibility over our behavior, leading us towards things that are valuable and important in life. 3.3 Psychological flexibility is important for persisting in behavior despite obstacles, and the ACT model represents this with a hexagon, with inflexibility leading to less flexibility. 4. 07:57 🧠 Experiential avoidance and cognitive fusion can hinder therapy by trapping us in our thoughts and memories, making us less flexible and resistant to exploring new possibilities. 4.1 Experiential avoidance involves trying to avoid internal experiences, while cognitive fusion is about being trapped in and treating thoughts as literal reality. 4.2 Being dominated by memories and attachment to our story about ourselves can make us less flexible and resistant to exploring new possibilities, hindering psychological therapy. 5. 10:40 🧠 Therapy helps people identify their values and take flexible actions, emphasizing active choice over resigned tolerance. 5.1 People often lack clarity and contact with their values, leading to inactivity and withdrawal, and therapy aims to help them identify what matters to them and take more flexible actions. 5.2 Acceptance and Commitment Therapy emphasizes the active choice to take in experiences rather than resigned tolerance. 6. 13:02 🧠 Cognitive diffusion in Acceptance & Commitment Therapy creates distance between thoughts and the present moment, leading to clarity and perspective, while being in touch with our values and taking action can help with depression. 6.1 Cognitive diffusion in Acceptance & Commitment Therapy involves creating distance between thoughts and the present moment to gain clarity and perspective. 6.2 Being in touch with and clear about our chosen values and taking commitment and action towards them leads to greater flexibility and can help with depression. 7. 15:40 🔑 Focus on finding strategies that align with your values and taking small steps towards them, using mindfulness and willingness to behave flexibly to combat depression in Acceptance & Commitment Therapy. 7.1 The focus of Acceptance & Commitment Therapy for Depression is on work ability, strategies for living with depression, and evaluating the effectiveness of these strategies. 7.2 Focus on finding strategies that work for you and taking small steps towards your values, rather than trying to get rid of depression first. 7.3 Using mindfulness, diffusion, and willingness to behave flexibly can help people change behaviors that don't align with their values and persist with behaviors that do, while unhooking feelings and thoughts as reasons for action in order to combat depression. 7.4 Focus on being in touch with your direct experience, holding stories about yourself lightly, making specific commitments, and choosing values freely. 7.5 Letting go of strategies that have worked and turning towards values is a key part of Acceptance & Commitment Therapy for depression, which differs from traditional CBT. 8. 21:52 🧠 Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT) focuses on changing how people relate to their thoughts rather than changing the thoughts themselves, based on a pragmatic approach to producing workable answers to human problems. 8.1 Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy are related as they both stem from behaviorism and have different variations. 8.2 Acceptance and commitment therapy overlaps with cognitive therapy and behavioral activation, but diverges in concepts and theories. 8.3 The concept of Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT) focuses on changing how people relate to their thoughts rather than changing the thoughts themselves, and it is based on a pragmatic approach to producing workable answers to human problems.

[@cloudstrife7349]

I got so hard when he described cognitive diffusion. What a creamy illustration.

[@reallivebluescat]

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