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Mindfulness Approaches (ACT & DBT) Part 1 - Coggle Diagram

- - - - In ACT theory, acceptance means taking an active, deliberative process of accepting our thoughts or emotions without trying to change them. It does not mean wanting or desiring our experiences. Terms such as willingness and letting go are also used to describe this attitude.
      - Acceptance also involves taking a "gentle, loving posture toward yourself, your history, and your programming so that it becomes more likely for you to simply be aware of your own experience".
      - The opposite, or dysfunctional process, is experiential avoidance, or our tendency to evade experience -- mainly that which makes us uncomfortable.
    - - To function optimally, we need to be in contact with what is going on around us now -- not caught in the past, future, or our own convoluted thoughts. This attention to the moment should be flexible, voluntary, and focused. Being present allows us to focus on our values mindfully so that we can actively seek to fulfil them. Dysfunctional individuals attend rigidly to the past or future rather than being present.
    - - Cognitive defusion refers to learning to perceive thoughts as only thoughts. Human beings have a tendency to forget this simple principle and see our cognitions as truth, which can cause us problems, a state known as cognitive fusion. However, it is possible to separate thoughts from relationships with other things, including our sense of self, and by doing so diminish the power of language in our psychological lives; this is cognitive defusion.
    - - According to ACT theorists, the self should not be viewed as static conceptualization, but rather as "the context where life events unfold". The term self as process is also used to describe this way of experiencing, which encourages us to be observers of what happens around and in us, without judging or justifying. Westrup (2014) emphasizes the distinction between self as process and self as context, pointing out that process is the ongoing noticing of experience, whereas context is being aware that we are noticing.
    - - In ACT theory, values are consciously chosen thoughts and behaviors. Acting in alignment with our values is rewarding to us.
    - - The goal of ACT is to help us behave in ways that are consistent with our values despite the inevitable suffering humans experience. When our values are not clear to us, we are like ships without rudders or even stuck aground. When we adopt (or pretend to) the values of others, we are not being true to ourselves, and the inconsistent information we receive is troubling to our sense of self.
    - - On the most basic level, it means that you are deliberately paying attention to your experience in the present moment and accepting it. It is the state attained, not the practices that get you there. Many definitions have been offered that add elements such as curiosity, acceptance, and a nonjudgmental attitude. It is the opposite of being on automatic pilot. In ACT theory, mindfulness is seen as resulting from the combination of four of the key processes of human functioning: acceptance, cognitive defusion, being present, and self as perspective.
  - - - Assessment can take many forms in ACT. On a very basic level, the counselor tries to understand the client and see where she might be stuck (conceptualized self) or avoiding experience.
      - ACT theorists acknowledge that formal assessment tools can be helpful, but caution that standard inventories most often register the presence of the symptoms, not their function (how they are related to the client's language system). Hayes and colleagues (2012) recommended a "Work-Love-Play" assessment, in which the therapist attempts to understand the client's functioning across valued aspects of life. There are also specific ACT measures such as the Acceptance and Action Questionnaire.
    - - Although many sources bypass the issue, the core conditions of warmth and genuineness are important in ACT. Counselor and client are equals in ACT, and the belief that the client can change is emphasized. Part of being equal is that the ACT therapist is willing to self-disclose when doing so facilitates the client's progress.
      - The ACT therapist is also a witness, holding the client accountable for choosing and following through with valued action. However, both must be careful to view this process as a living one; it is a journey that will surely take different paths than anticipated, and the outcomes must be viewed flexibly. Getting stuck on particular ways of getting there or on particular goals can be seen as a form of fusion, so the process is one of trial and error, guided by the values identified by the client. In ACT language, clients are expected to "commit and slip".
      - The person of the therapist is important in ACT. Counselors must apply the principles of ACT to themselves. For example, the ACT therapist must be aware that her own thoughts are simply verbal events entwined in context. Accepting her own experience makes it more likely that the therapist can accept the client's. Therapists must not get stuck on what "should be" in therapy, avoid certain paths of exploration or experience, or choose actions that are not consistent with their values as therapists.
    - - The primary goal of ACT is to help clients behave in ways that are consistent with their values, even when uncomfortable, unwanted private experience tells them to do otherwise. It is not enough to think about doing this; ACT requires committed action. A necessary prerequisite to committed action is psychological flexibility.
      - Another way to look at ACT goals is through the concept of willingness, defined as "being open to one's whole experience while also actively and intentionally choosing to move in a valued life direction. From a narrower perspective, the ACT therapist tries to help clients change the functions of experiences (mainly thoughts), not their form. When clients seek help, it is because they are frozen; their inner experience is dictating their behavior rigidly. The ACT therapist wants to change the social and verbal meanings of these relations. After all, if a thought is not "true", it doesn't need to drive our behavior.