ACT-Informed Exposure for Anxiety


Book Description

Powerfully effective, innovative, values-driven exposures for treating clients with anxiety. Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) offers a proven effective model rooted in cutting edge research for guiding the use of exposure therapy—one of the most effective treatments for anxiety-related disorders. This comprehensive book provides easy-to-implement guidance in utilizing ACT-informed exposure while remaining grounded in theory, so you can help your clients approach what they’re afraid of in order to live their best lives. As you know, there are many different styles and ways of practicing exposure. This essential professional guide synthesizes evidence-based science, clinical studies, and complex theory into one powerfully effective resource, and makes ACT-informed exposure accessible to any practicing clinician. The book also offers practical suggestions for tailoring exposure exercises grounded in ACT to effectively address common client and therapist barriers to exposure therapy. Whether you are new to ACT and exposure, or are experienced in other models of exposure therapy and interested in incorporating ACT into your practice, this book is an essential resource for your professional library.




The Big Book of Exposures


Book Description

As a clinician, do you suffer from “exposure phobia?” This breakthrough book offers 400 creative, innovative, and easy-to-implement exposure exercises to help you and your clients move past fears, energize treatment sessions, and improve client outcomes. In cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), exposures are the gold standard for treating anxiety-related disorders, including obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), panic, and phobias. But if you’re like many therapists, you’ve likely encountered clients who are fearful or reluctant to exposure therapy. As a result, you may also shy away from doing exposures out of fear of worsening your client’s anxiety or rupturing the client/therapist rapport. So, how can you find a new approach for using this effective—yet intimidating—treatment? The Big Book of Exposures offers unconventional new exposures to help you provide the most effective treatment possible. In addition, you’ll also find a comprehensive overview of exposure therapy; a rationale for its use in treating anxiety-related disorders; troubleshooting tips for dealing with common roadblocks, such as avoidance; and techniques for helping clients stay motivated during treatment. With this essential resource, you’ll learn to create engaging and enjoyable exposure exercises to improve treatment outcomes and help your clients live better lives.




ACT in Practice


Book Description

Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) is more than just a set of techniques for structuring psychotherapeutic treatment; it also offers a new, insightful, transdiagnostic approach to case conceptualization and to mental health in general. Learn to put this popular new psychotherapeutic model to work in your practice with this book, the first guide that explains how to do case conceptualization within an ACT framework. ACT in Practice offers an introduction to ACT, an overview of its impact, and a brief introduction to the six core processes of ACT treatment--the six points of the hexaflex model and its pathological alter ego, the so-called inflexahex. It describes how to accomplish case conceptualizations in general and offers précis of the literature that establish the importance and value of case conceptualization. This guide also offers possible alternative case conceptualization for cases from different therapeutic traditions, a great help to therapists who come from a more traditional CBT background. Exercises throughout help you to evaluate the information you have just learned so that you may effectively integrate ACT into your practice.




Learning ACT


Book Description

Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) is among the most remarkable developments in contemporary psychotherapy. This second edition of the pioneering ACT skills-training manual for clinicians provides a comprehensive update—essential for both experienced practitioners and those new to using ACT and its applications. ACT is a proven-effective treatment for numerous mental health issues, including depression, anxiety, stress, addictions, eating disorders, schizophrenia, borderline personality disorder, and more. With important revisions based on new developments in contextual behavioral science, Learning ACT, Second Edition includes up-to-date exercises and references, as well as material on traditional, evidence-based behavioral techniques for use within the ACT framework. In this fully revised and updated edition of Learning ACT, you’ll find workbook-format exercises to help you understand and take advantage of ACT’s unique six process model—both as a tool for diagnosis and case conceptualization, and as a basis for structuring treatments for clients. You’ll also find up-to-the-minute information on process coaching, new experiential exercises, an increased focus on functional analysis, and downloadable extras that include role-played examples of the core ACT processes in action. By practicing the exercises in this workbook, you’ll learn how this powerful modality can improve clients’ psychological flexibility and help them to live better lives. Whether you’re a clinician looking for in-depth training and better treatment outcomes for individual clients, a student seeking a better understanding of this powerful modality, or anyone interested in contextual behavioral science, this second edition provides a comprehensive revision to an important ACT resource.




ACT Verbatim for Depression and Anxiety


Book Description

Copublished with Context Press This collection of transcripts, organized and annotated by Michael P. Twohig and acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) founder Steven C. Hayes, guides you through ACT-based therapy processes session-by-session. The transcripts featured in ACT Verbatim present common situations that arise in clinical practice, while the commentary explains how to identify the six target ACT processes and help clients work through them to achieve psychological flexibility. For the most detailed view of ACT therapy, the clinical transcripts included here follow the development of one client struggling with anger, anxiety, and depression. Since ACT is process- rather than technique-oriented, this kind of in the moment analysis is a singularly effective way to learn to apply this therapeutic model. These transcripts will help you: •Identify client indicators that suggest you should target a specific process in therapy •Create useful exercises to foster client development in the core processes of ACT •Evaluate client advancement and structure sessions for maximum progress •Learn the different styles other therapists use to implement ACT in their own ways




Living Beyond Your Pain


Book Description

Using mindfulness-based techniques and cognitive behavioral tools, a leading expert on the use of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) teaches readers to transcend the experience of chronic pain by reconnecting with other, more valued aspects of their lives.




ACT-Informed Exposure for Anxiety


Book Description

Powerfully effective, innovative, values-driven exposures for treating clients with anxiety. Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) offers a proven effective model rooted in cutting edge research for guiding the use of exposure therapy—one of the most effective treatments for anxiety-related disorders. This comprehensive book provides easy-to-implement guidance in utilizing ACT-informed exposure while remaining grounded in theory, so you can help your clients approach what they’re afraid of in order to live their best lives. As you know, there are many different styles and ways of practicing exposure. This essential professional guide synthesizes evidence-based science, clinical studies, and complex theory into one powerfully effective resource, and makes ACT-informed exposure accessible to any practicing clinician. The book also offers practical suggestions for tailoring exposure exercises grounded in ACT to effectively address common client and therapist barriers to exposure therapy. Whether you are new to ACT and exposure, or are experienced in other models of exposure therapy and interested in incorporating ACT into your practice, this book is an essential resource for your professional library.




The Mindfulness and Acceptance Workbook for Anxiety


Book Description

Is anxiety and fear a problem for you? Have you tried to win the war with your anxious mind and body, only to end up feeling frustrated, powerless, and stuck? If so, you’re not alone. But there is a way forward, a path into genuine happiness, and a way back into living the kind of life you so desperately want. This workbook will help you get started on this new journey today! Now in its second edition, The Mindfulness and Acceptance Workbook for Anxiety offers a new approach to your anxiety, fears, and your life. Within its pages, you’ll find a powerful and tested set of tools and strategies to help you gain freedom from fear, trauma, worry, and all the many manifestations of anxiety and fear. The book offers an empowering approach to help you create the kind of life you so desperately want to live. Based on a revolutionary approach to psychological health and wellness called acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), this fully revised and updated second edition offers compelling new exercises to help you create the conditions for your own genuine happiness and peace of mind. You’ll learn how your mind can trap you, keeping you stuck and struggling in anxiety and fear. You’ll also discover ways to nurture your capacity for acceptance, mindfulness, kindness, and compassion, and use these qualities to weaken the power of anxiety and fear so that you can gain the space do what truly matters to you. Now is the time. Nobody chooses anxiety. And there is no healthy way to “turn off” anxious thoughts and feelings like a light switch. But you can learn to break free from the shackles of anxiety and fear and take back your life. The purpose of this workbook is to help you do just that. Your life is calling on you to make that choice, and the skills in this workbook can help you make it happen. You can live better, more fully, and more richly with or without anxiety and fear. This book will show you the way. -- Recent studies support for the effectiveness of ACT-based self-help workbooks as a low-cost treatment for people experiencing anxiety. (Ritzert, T., Forsyth, J. P., Berghoff, C. R., Boswell, J., & Eifert, G. H. (2016). Evaluating the effectiveness of ACT for anxiety disorders in a self-help context: Outcomes from a randomized wait-list controlled trial. Behavior Therapy, 47, 431-572.)




The Big Book of ACT Metaphors


Book Description

Metaphors and exercises play an incredibly important part in the successful delivery of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT). These powerful tools go far in helping clients connect with their values and give them the motivation needed to make a real, conscious commitment to change. Unfortunately, many of the metaphors that clinicians use have become stale and ineffective. That’s why you need fresh, new resources for your professional library. In this breakthrough book, two ACT researchers provide an essential A-Z resource guide that includes tons of new metaphors and experiential exercises to help promote client acceptance, defusion from troubling thoughts, and values-based action. The book also includes scripts tailored to different client populations, and special metaphors and exercises that address unique problems that may sometimes arise in your therapy sessions. Several ACT texts and workbooks have been published for the treatment of a variety of psychological problems. However, no one resource exists where you can find an exhaustive list of metaphors and experiential exercises geared toward the six core elements of ACT. Whether you are treating a client with anxiety, depression, trauma, or an eating disorder, this book will provide you with the skills needed to improve lives, one exercise at a time. With a special foreword by ACT cofounder Steven C. Hayes, PhD, this book is a must-have for any ACT Practitioner.




Acceptance and Mindfulness Treatments for Children and Adolescents


Book Description

Though acceptance and mindfulness interventions have proven enormously effective for adults with stress, anxiety, depression, and other mental health issues, they have not been fully documented for use with children and adolescents. And yet they are a natural fit for children's therapy-the focus on acceptance and mindfulness builds children's psychological flexibility, and the values component of these methods helps young people learn to set goals and take action to achieve them. The chapters in Acceptance and Mindfulness Treatments for Children and Adolescents show how to modify third-wave behavioral and cognitive therapy methods for the treatment of children and adolescents. This book also considers the early evidence for the adaptability and effectiveness of these methods. Edited by two luminaries in the field of third-wave behavior therapy, these essays will be invaluable in helping young patients reap the benefits of acceptance and mindfulness approaches such as acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT), and mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR). •Learn how ACT, DBT, MBCT, and MBSR can be used with young people and their families •Discover recent third-wave behavior therapy research •Explore the practice issues that arise when acceptance and mindfulness techniques are used with children and adolescents •Find out how to put these techniques to work in your own practice