Learning ACT // Part 9: Bringing It All Together

[@rouxgamin]

Amazing video with ACT consistent and inconsistent examples! Thank you very much for it!!

[@jaymcconnell3840]

Yes, very helpful. Thank you.

[@Alfonsina_Lk]

00:33 Exploring Acceptance and Experiential Avoidance Identifying moments to explore what could be learned from unpleasant experiences. Focusing on acceptance and avoiding experiential avoidance as a potential way forward aligned with ACT principles. 02:00 Diffusing Depressogenic Thoughts Differentiating between an act-consistent approach of diffusion and an act-inconsistent response of reinforcing thought centrality. Emphasizing the negative impact of taking thoughts literally and reinforcing problems of fusion with depressogenic thoughts. 04:09 Awareness of Shifting Topics in Therapy Noting therapist shifts in topics may indicate avoidance of difficult areas, contradicting the present-centered approach of ACT. Cautioning against clinicians leading discussions away from present experiences, which conflicts with ACT principles. 05:40 Grounding in the Present Moment Highlighting the importance of staying present by focusing on bodily sensations and experiences, a fundamental aspect of ACT. Emphasizing the costs of cognitive entanglement and avoidance, underscoring the benefits of experiencing the present moment. 06:52 Seeking a Contextualized Self Encouraging the recognition of the observer behind thoughts to allow for experiencing difficult thoughts and feelings without overwhelm. Identifying a transcendent sense of self as a place from which one can respond to distressing thoughts and emotions more flexibly. 08:12 Balancing Acceptance and Pushing Boundaries Cautioning against pushing a client too hard in the name of acceptance, advocating for a gentler growth process aligned with client readiness. Discouraging a forceful approach and emphasizing the importance of choice and values in the therapeutic process. 09:29 Exploring Client Aspirations Encouraging exploration of a client's desired life and values to move towards a fulfilling life beyond the struggles. Recognizing that moving through pain may lead to discovering one's aspirations and life direction aligned with personal values.

[@ajmarr5671]

ACT is right if you go a bit ‘Radical’! Acceptance and Commitment therapy has been validated mainly through correlational studies between groups that use ACT and those that don’t, or ‘between group’ designs, that unfortunately leave a lot of room for debate for the relative efficacy of alternative therapies such as CBT and other talk therapies. Here is a validation from a ‘within’ subject design (mapping behavior to actual brain processes) that maps the concepts of acceptance and commitment to bio-behavioral events, or a radical behaviorism. It does not engage the complex syntactic structures of relational frame theory, and is therefore quite simple. A Commitment to Values works, but best while in a resting or relaxed state. Here is why. Positivity Simplified Persistent positive or meaningful thinking in a resting state will increase pleasure and arousal, and avoid negative ideation that elicits opposing emotional states. Positivity Explained Any relaxation protocol from eyes closed rest to mindfulness is pleasurable, due to the release of endogenous opioids. If concurrent persistent positive or meaningful ideation occurs (meaning is defined as thinking of or doing actions that have branching novel positive implications, or virtual positive act-outcome contingencies), this induces a feeling of arousal as mediated by dopamine systems. Dopamine and opioid systems are synergistic, or when activated simultaneously reciprocally stimulate each other, causing feelings of greater pleasure and arousal, or ecstatic states. This explains why ‘loving kindness’ meditation, savoring, peak, or flow experiences that have rest as an entailment ‘feel’ different from resting states, yet nonetheless represent unremarkable and simple neural processes that can be explained and replicated with ease by anyone. An Aside on ACT Ironically, this procedure may be termed ‘relaxation and commitment’ in contrast to ‘acceptance and commitment’, as relaxation protocols by design involve the avoidance of negative ideation or an ‘acceptance’ of the status quo. The difference is that the former derives from a radical or bio-behaviorism, while the latter derived from a behavior analytic theory of language. A formal explanation from a neurologically based learning theory or ‘radical behaviorism’ of this technique is provided on pp. 44-51 in a little open-source book on the psychology of rest linked below. (The flow experience is discussed on pp. 81-86.) www.scribd.com/doc/284056765/The-Book-of-Rest-The-Odd-Psychology-of-Doing-Nothing The Psychology of Rest, from the International Journal of Stress Management, and from the Journal ‘The Behavior Analyst Today’ by this author www.scribd.com/doc/121345732/Relaxation-and-Muscular-Tension-A-bio-behavioristic-explanation www.scribd.com/document/16384355/Stress-and-the-Cinderella-Effect More on Neurologically Grounded Learning Theory- Berridge Lab, University of Michigan www.scribd.com/document/447163649/Berridge-Reward-Learning-Incentives-and-Expectations and The Psychology of Incentive Motivation and Affect (for a layman’s version) www.scribd.com/document/495438436/A-Mouse-s-Tale-a-practical-explanation-and-handbook-of-motivation-from-the-perspective-of-a-humble-creature