Faith-Based ACT for Christian Clients: An Integrative Treatment Approach

by Joshua J. Knabb

Faith-Based ACT for Christian Clients balances empirical evidence with theology to give clinicians a deep understanding of not just the "why" but also the "how" of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for Christian clients. Chapters include a detailed exploration of the overlap between ACT and the Christian faith, case studies, and techniques that are explicitly designed to be accessible to non-Christian as well as Christian (including evangelical Christian) counselors and therapists. Chapters present the established research on mindfulness and ACT, including a nuanced, non-dichotomous view of complex issues such as medication, and lay a firm theological foundation through the use of engaging biblical stories and metaphors.

Genres: Psychology

228 pages, Kindle Edition

Published March 10, 2016

Reviews

[Duncan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall, I really found this book to be really helpful in identifying specific ways the ACT model may be modified for an overtly Christian theraputic context. As a psychologist working primarily within an ACT model, I found the author's approach to be useful, informative, and practical.

The author's summary of the ACT model and the integration of research in demonstrating the values of ACT to Christians specifically was concise and grounded. It is clear the author and his colleagues have done a lot of research, and it was very helpful to be shown a link between increasing psychological flexibility and a person's spiritual walk. This is something that I feel is missing from more general Christian counselling books and it was comforting the have the research base be made explicit. I also appreciated the way the author worked through the Hexaflex and identified how each one may be shaped to suit a Christian context. This left me feeling very well-rounded when it comes to using ACT with a Christian client.

I did experience some hang-ups and differences of opinion while reading, though most of these I will admit come down to personal preference. I found the way the author leant on the writing of the Desert Fathers to be a bit grating for me. I'm sure there is much wisdom in their writings and a lot of Spirit-filled truth, however, this was not a community that I am overly familiar with, and have little experience in their teaching. This led me to be a bit cautious when the author leant hard on them as a source to support the harmony between the ACT model and Christianity. Though the author includes many references to Scripture, I would have preferred for it to be more central.

I also found some of the exercises and metaphors to miss the mark with me. This seems to be a common experience when reading ACT textbooks as some metaphors land and some don't, but a couple of these (i.e. the cell as a pathway to acceptance) were really difficult for me to imagine delivering. Also I think some of the later chapters could be tightened up a bit and some of the metaphors and exercises moved to an appendix.

All of that being said, I would still happily recommend this book to any ACT practitioner who wanted some specific modifications for therapy when working with Christian clients. It's a quick read, well researched and very practical.

[Brad Fuller · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very helpful for Christian clients whose expressed goal is to follow Jesus better or "walk with God in love." Full of great ideas for adapting ACT to this type of goal. But in my experience working with Christian clients, this is rarely their primary goal. For most Christian clients, I have found that ACT works very well without having to change the terminology to something explicitly Christian (e.g. "hopeful endurance" instead of acceptance, "biblical virtues" instead of values). There is plenty of room to customize ACT to Christian clients and talk about how their faith informs their values and so on without needing change what we call all of ACT's core processes. Same goes for mindfulness - Christian clients can practice and benefit greatly from mindfulness without compromising their faith (in fact, mindfulness perhaps offers something that the contemplative tradition does not). I also think Knabb's strong reliance on the contemplative tradition results in a lot of repetition of the same few tools (prayer word, Jesus prayer) being suggested over and over. I would like to see a better variety of tools without being limited to using only what desert fathers found helpful several centuries ago.

I've gleaned several new ideas from this book which I appreciate and have already begun to use, but I think many of Knabb's adaptations are quite unnecessary.

[Stryker794 · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like a healthy chunk of this book, but it was very repetitive. The author has good Christian applications of the principles of ACT, but he relies a little too heavily on a group of people who moved out to the desert away from the people they could have been sharing the Gospel with. Also, his Mary and Martha metaphor, while understandable, is misapplied simply because Jesus and Luke disagreed with what he said about it. (Jesus said Mary's choice was better, and Luke said Martha was "distracted," while Knabb said it was equal to Martha's). To be fair, I might have enjoyed it more if I did not have to read the entire thing in one week for school.