Acceptance and Commitment Therapy For Dummies

by Freddy Jackson Brown, Duncan Gillard, Steven C. Hayes (Foreword)

Harness ACT to live a healthier life Do you want to change your relationship with painful thoughts and feelings that are holding you back from making changes to improve your life? In Acceptance and Commitment Therapy For Dummies, you'll discover how to identify negative and unhealthy modes of thinking and apply Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) principles throughout your day-to-day life, creating a healthier, richer and more meaningful existence with yourself and others.

Closely connected to Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), ACT is an evidence-based, NICE-approved therapy that uses acceptance and mindfulness strategies mixed in with commitment and behaviour-changing strategies to help people increase their psychological flexibility in both their personal and professional lives. With the help of this straightforward and authoritative guide, you'll find out how to target unpleasant feelings and not act upon them—without sending yourself spiraling down the rabbit hole. The objective is not happiness; rather, it is to be present with what life brings you and to move toward valued behaviour.

Shows you how to banish unhelpful thoughts Guides you to making room for painful feelings Teaches you how to engage fully with your here-and-now experience Helps you cope with anxiety, depression, stress, OCD and psychosis Whether you're looking to practice self care at home or are thinking about seeing an ACT therapist, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy For Dummies makes it easier to live a healthier and more productive life in spite of—and alongside—unpleasantness.

Genres: Psychology, Self Help, Nonfiction, Mental Health, Audiobook

279 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 12, 2016

Reviews

[Damaskcat · Rating 5 out of 5]

This useful book comes in the standard For Dummies format with plenty of useful tips and exercises throughout the text. I think people who find the self help emphasis on always being positive whatever the situation may find this book more realistic. The basis of ACT is that you accept unpleasant and unhappy feelings as part of life and concentrate on experiencing the hear and now - whether that is good or bad.

It is also about focussing on what really matters to you in life and what you want to achieve and accepting that things aren't always going to go well but that if you keep your core aims in mind then you are less likely to go off track. The book does emphasise that if you're trying to change your thoughts and feelings then you may well not succeed though I'm not at all sure I completely agree with this I can see the point of just letting your emotions and thoughts be what they are and concentrating on what you can change.

The book ties in with the current popular concept of 'Now' of living in the present and not thinking about the past or the future since the present is all you can ever experience. The books explains how to apply ACT to everyday situations both at work and at home and the last section of the book is entitled 'The part of tens' and includes ten exercises to help you live more mindfully; ten tips for value based living and ten tips to overcome fusion and experiential avoidance. There is an index and a list of further resources

[Lisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF 45% There is good structural information about ACT in this book but it caters to cherry-picking which chapters you want to read—not a bad thing but annoying if you want to read it straight through since it’s then extremely repetitive (i.e. “We don’t know if you caught this tidbit in the previous chapter so let us quote it verbatim and give you déjà vu.”)

[Gizzard · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a good overview, but there are are books that are much better. Get out of your mind and into your life, the happiness trap are two.

[Jared Guertin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good introduction to ACT, I benefited from this as a clinician reading it, but it is also designed to be beneficial for lay individuals looking to improve their lives.

A great way to reformulate the way you interpret your life - and the way you interpret your own interpretations of your life. The book contains some really useful tutorials and activities for improving your own quality of life at home, in relationships, in the workplace, and beyond.

One criticism is that this book promotes ideas in a vein I do not like: a replacement of philosophy with psychology. Parts of this book make the claim that they've unlocked a new way of understanding reality and life. I get that that's useful and effective and stuff, but I also think it's dangerous to marry epistemology and therapy this closely.

That said, on a practical level this book was extremely helpful, and I've already begun implementing ACT principles more directly into my therapeutic practice thanks to the tutorial in this book.

[Alexander · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very good and friendly introduction into the world of ACT. I'm a child therapist, and I'm only just getting to know this kind of therapy - I've recently had a beginner's course in it, and am planning on applying more of this in my treatments. This is a good start, though I don't necessarily agree with all of it (I find the attitude 'your thoughts don't influence what you do at all' to be a little too simplistic) it's a great introduction nonetheless, and it's good to have a different perspective on the philosophy of ACT. The only thing working against it is that it's very, very beginner, and as a therapist it was sometimes a little slow. The best psychology books, IMHO, are perfect to read for both therapists and clients, and this wasn't that, which is why it gets only four stars. But I can definitely recommend this to (parents of) clients.

[Cindy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Helder en duidelijk geschreven boek. Voor mij een goede opfrisser van de reeds gevolgde cursus. Zelf een cursus volgen is zeker een meerwaarde doordat je dan samen oefeningen doet want ik kan me indenken dat door enkel het boek te lezen het soms moeilijk is of niet altijd even duidelijk.
Bij de verschillende problematieken (angst/verslaving/...) komen wel telkens de zelfde stappen terug. veel herhaling maar dat is misschien ook niet altijd slecht.

[Katie Hamby]

This books is clear, helpful, and insightful. I’d recommend this for anyone who is tired of fighting their own thoughts and living in their own head. Though the spiritual ties to Buddhism can be problematic, it can be instead framed in a different way (well, the mindfulness part). So far this book has been helpful to me

[Rhayna · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good for students not patients.
This book gives a good overview of the therapy and could be helpful for students. This book can not act as a therapist or a self-help book. ACT is very effective but requires a qualified therapist not a book.

[Dr. JL · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great clear exercises. Bought Kindle book.