MMN 032 Acceptance amp Commitment Therapy with Matt Boone

>> YOUR LINK HERE: ___ http://youtube.com/watch?v=BRl5wjdIucs

On this episode of the Make a Mental Note podcast, Matt Boone, a licensed clinical social worker, discusses the basics of Acceptance Commitment Therapy (ACT). Give it a listen and find out why this episode is worthy of a mental note! • Mental Notes: • ACT – comes from CBT tradition – in particular, the behavioral side of that tradition (e.g., classical and operant conditioning; exposure to things that are usually avoided) but not direct efforts to change thoughts and feelings. Help people develop a different relationship with thoughts and feelings – in particular, no thought or feeling is bad. • ACT also grounded in mindfulness. Helping people notice what they’re thinking (or feeling). Have people imagine thoughts on a leaf that’s floating on a stream floating away or like a cloud in the sky and simply watching them, but not attempting to change anything. It’s noticing things that are happening • ACT seeks to disconnect thoughts and feelings or thoughts and behaviors. • If people work too hard to change thoughts that they might experience suppression and make those thoughts rebound strongly. • Clients may be aware of and argue with their thoughts all day long, but it doesn’t necessarily make the thoughts go away. Instead of arguing with thoughts, ACT therapists encourage clients to step back and notice the arguments in their heads (and acknowledge that those thoughts are there and won’t necessarily go away) and help them move in the direction of what they care about and not wait for the argument to go away. Doing what’s meaningful in life should be the focus. • Helping clients to be observers of their thoughts – instead of fighting with their thoughts – is an important goal of ACT. • Acceptance does not mean resignation, giving up or giving over to the pain/distress that might be ruling a client’s life. It means willingness. Clients are not asked to accept the terrible things that might be happening in their lives. However, clients are challenged to experience temporary emotional discomfort (i.e., they are asked if they are willing to be uncomfortable in the short-term) while they are learning the skills to help them do things that they typically avoid in order to achieve their goal of a meaningful life. • Avoidance characterizes the problems of many people, but there are other themes as well. For example, some clients are living out particular narratives that they learned about themselves earlier in their lives without noticing that there’s something beyond that narrative. However, the goal of ACT is not to get clients to change their narratives for the better. The goal is to help clients understand how their narratives operate in their lives and to provide them experiences to see the narratives for what they are. • Helping clients understand the function of their behaviors/the roles they serve in their lives is important in developing their awareness and understanding of their narratives. • Making an assumption that clients who fail to progress in therapy simply don’t want to change is not useful. It may be more useful for therapists to acknowledge that they just haven’t discovered the right way to draw a particular client into change. • In terms of understanding challenging clients – therapists can think about how what clients are presenting in therapy are learned behaviors that may serve as coping or survival strategies. The behaviors may have worked successfully for them in a certain context, but not so much in another context. • Therapists are challenged to tune in to whatever pain or distress within a client that’s driving their behavior. • Mental health tip: Keep in mind the difference between being right and being effective. • A core lesson of ACT is, “Can I let go of the things that aren’t changeable?” This is similar to the serenity prayer. • Mental Notes Takeaway: • Acceptance and Commitment Therapy helps clients look at what is important to them and what a vital and meaningful life would look like to them (focusing on values is key). ACT therapists help clients engage in behaviors that move them in the direction of their values – regardless of what they’re thinking or feeling in a given moment and – and as Matt said – encouraging clients to bring their thoughts and feelings along for the ride as “invited guests.” • Check It Out: • Matt Boone’s website: http://www.matthewsboone.com/ • Praxis professional training: https://www.praxiscet.com/trainers/ma... • Association for Contextual Behavioral Science: https://contextualscience.org/ • Chris Quarto - the host of the MMN podcast - is a licensed psychologist in Murfreesboro, Tennessee who 1) conducts psychological evaluations, 2) provides distance counseling services to adults, 3) provides licensure supervision to individuals who are enroute to becoming licensed professional counselors (LPCs), and 4) coaches therapists who wish to go into private practice. Check out his website at www.chrisquarto.com

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