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Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for Behavior Analysts: A Practice Guide from Theory to Treatment
This book provides a thorough discussion of acceptance and commitment therapy or training (ACT) and a guide for its use by behavior analysts. The book emphasizes how the intentional development of six core behavioral processes - values, committed action, acceptance, defusion, self-as-context, and present moment awareness - help establish the psychological flexibility needed to acquire and maintain adaptive behaviors that compete with maladaptive behavior patterns in verbally able clients.
Split into three parts, the book discusses the history and controversy surrounding the rise of acceptance and commitment strategies in behavior analysis and shows how the processes underlying ACT are linked to foundational behavioral scientific principles as amplified by stimulus equivalence and relational learning principles such as those addressed by relational frame theory. In a careful step-by-step way, it describes the best practices for administering the acceptance and commitment procedures at the level of the individual client, organizational systems, and with families. Attention is also given to the ethical and scope-of-practice considerations for behavior analysts, along with recommendations for conducting on-going research on this new frontier for behavior analytic treatment across a myriad of populations and behaviors. Written by leading experts in the field, the book argues that practice must proceed from the basic tenants of behavior analysis, and that now is the opportune moment to bring ACT methods to behavior analysts to maximize the scope and depth of behavioral treatments for all people.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for Behavior Analysts will be an essential read for students of behavior analysis and behavior therapy, as well as for individuals on graduate training programs that prepare behavior analysts and professionals that are likely to use ACT in their clinical practice and research.
Split into three parts, the book discusses the history and controversy surrounding the rise of acceptance and commitment strategies in behavior analysis and shows how the processes underlying ACT are linked to foundational behavioral scientific principles as amplified by stimulus equivalence and relational learning principles such as those addressed by relational frame theory. In a careful step-by-step way, it describes the best practices for administering the acceptance and commitment procedures at the level of the individual client, organizational systems, and with families. Attention is also given to the ethical and scope-of-practice considerations for behavior analysts, along with recommendations for conducting on-going research on this new frontier for behavior analytic treatment across a myriad of populations and behaviors. Written by leading experts in the field, the book argues that practice must proceed from the basic tenants of behavior analysis, and that now is the opportune moment to bring ACT methods to behavior analysts to maximize the scope and depth of behavioral treatments for all people.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for Behavior Analysts will be an essential read for students of behavior analysis and behavior therapy, as well as for individuals on graduate training programs that prepare behavior analysts and professionals that are likely to use ACT in their clinical practice and research.
300 pages, ebook
Published March 16, 2023
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37 people want to read
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March 31, 2023
There is quite a lot to unpack here and I want to write it all down while I'm inspired as I just finished.
I was definitely eager to dive in when I first received this just published text, but I wanted to be careful to read everything thoroughly, so I took my time with this one.
There are a bunch of books and articles already out there about Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) in all different varieties, but this is not just yet another one. THIS is specifically written for Behavior Analysts by one of the co-founders of ACT/co-creators of RFT (Steven C Hayes) alongside the creator of PEAK Relational Training and AIM (Mark Dixon) and the creator of Relational Density Theory (Jordan Belisle). It doesn't get any more impressive than this! All together they've published god knows how many articles, books, trainings, etc. Leaders in the field.
I need to get this out of the way first, although I don't want it to detract from the exceptional quality of information that EVERY Behavior Analyst will benefit from when they read and hopefully form study groups around this book. There are quite a lot of grammatical errors in this book. Yikes! What happened exactly? Some misspellings here and there, but also flagrantly wrong word choice in many places. Where was the editor?? Anyway, that being said, really that is my only major criticism and I can take it as it didn't detract from the content at all.
The book is separated in three major sections: the first part sets the historical stage and how ACT fits with ABA foundational principles; the second details the behavioral processes of the hexaflex model; the third, and most interesting for me, covered a wide range of topics - assessments, measures, treatments, research (hmm, probably my least interesting chapter for me, but you know, still well worth it) and finally - bingo, bango - the last chapter on Ethical Decision Making was brilliant! This chapter really pulled it together for me. All throughout the book I was trying to predict which of the three authors wrote each chapter - or maybe they all had a hand in all the chapters. But, if I had to guess, the last chapter was written primarily by Hayes, but I could be mistaken. Hayes has been vocal many times about the deficiencies in traditional behavior analysis when it comes to the verbally able. Our research and practice remained in the dark ages while RFT and ACT were in full development, even though both have behavior analytic roots. Why is this? I take it that traditionalists that were married to the ideas of Skinner were ruling the roost at the time and prevented our field from the growth it deserved for many years.
Even when I graduated not many years ago, the ABA education was primarily all about Skinner and direct contingencies. RFT and ACT were mentioned, but almost in passing as if they really didn't apply or matter. Then came my work, which when I first started, was gradually filling up with Behavior Analysts right and left. All were pretty much mentally stuck in second wave ABA. ACT was not a learned skill, and many were not really interested in learning more about it. Why? Not because it wasn't thought to have practicality, but it was mainly because the ABA education drilled into our heads to REMAIN WITHIN OUR SCOPE OF PRACTICE, or else! For many years, ACT was thought as a "talk therapy" and every talk therapy was really considered a psychotherapy. And we are definitely not psychotherapists. But, over the years, vocal leaders like Hayes and Dixon and Yvonne Barnes-Holmes among several others rang the dinner bell for behavior analysts to learn ACT and RFT. They opened the doors for Behavior Analysts to be welcomed in, though I don't think many ABA practitioners began flooding in at first. There may have been more of a trickle. But, ACT and RFT courses for behavior analysts kept coming and more and more practitioners and researchers began creeping in over time. I was one of those sheep. The thing is - once you get in, it's like a light bulb comes on and you realize - well jesus, I guess I don't know everything there is about behavior despite what that framed little paper hanging on my wall says. It was refreshing to be teachable and scale up my knowledge. I really think that I've learned a whole lot more about behavior AFTER I passed my exam. Needless to say, I think there's an educational gap that needs filling.
It's not about me, but I'm trying to set the context for the importance and relevance of this new book and what it represents to our field and to goofballs like me. Above anything else, I believe this book finally validates ACT practice for behavior analysts - that, yes, we CAN actually talk to the verbally able and provide them direct services using the breakdown of the verbal operant and its behavior-behavior relation to direct contingencies. That's beautiful. And I know, I'm not discounting the numerous journal articles that came before this, but this book is front and center.
Strong interest arose when I told co-workers about it when it first came available a couple weeks ago. Interest that was definitely not there before. And all it took was the demigods of Hayes, Dixon and Belisle to publish just for us. I'm not usually prone to hyperbole, but this book may very well be the equivalent of the second coming of Christ, if Jesus was a Behavior Analyst. Yes, it's validation and I believe that it's undoubtably going to take the wave of current change in our field and make it into a tsunami! The possibilities are endless. And who knew a science of language development and learning coupled with an empirically-validated therapeutic model would be this important to behavior analysts?? Oh yeah, we did, and we fumbled. This book helps to pick the ball up and keep running. It's a game changer.
This comprehensive book breaks it all down. Very well written and published by the ABAI. Yes, further validation and credibility. This warms the cockles of my heart. We're kind of like the Jeffersons at this point. We're movin' on up. I now give it about 8 months before the world's problems are completely solved. So, no worries about gun violence and climate change. We'll get it. Lol.
The book is $55, but totally worth it. Mark it up with notes and reference it. And with it - take the module course that just came out on Praxis. A bit pricey, yes, but I'd say worth every penny if you're a freak and into this kind of thing.
I was definitely eager to dive in when I first received this just published text, but I wanted to be careful to read everything thoroughly, so I took my time with this one.
There are a bunch of books and articles already out there about Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) in all different varieties, but this is not just yet another one. THIS is specifically written for Behavior Analysts by one of the co-founders of ACT/co-creators of RFT (Steven C Hayes) alongside the creator of PEAK Relational Training and AIM (Mark Dixon) and the creator of Relational Density Theory (Jordan Belisle). It doesn't get any more impressive than this! All together they've published god knows how many articles, books, trainings, etc. Leaders in the field.
I need to get this out of the way first, although I don't want it to detract from the exceptional quality of information that EVERY Behavior Analyst will benefit from when they read and hopefully form study groups around this book. There are quite a lot of grammatical errors in this book. Yikes! What happened exactly? Some misspellings here and there, but also flagrantly wrong word choice in many places. Where was the editor?? Anyway, that being said, really that is my only major criticism and I can take it as it didn't detract from the content at all.
The book is separated in three major sections: the first part sets the historical stage and how ACT fits with ABA foundational principles; the second details the behavioral processes of the hexaflex model; the third, and most interesting for me, covered a wide range of topics - assessments, measures, treatments, research (hmm, probably my least interesting chapter for me, but you know, still well worth it) and finally - bingo, bango - the last chapter on Ethical Decision Making was brilliant! This chapter really pulled it together for me. All throughout the book I was trying to predict which of the three authors wrote each chapter - or maybe they all had a hand in all the chapters. But, if I had to guess, the last chapter was written primarily by Hayes, but I could be mistaken. Hayes has been vocal many times about the deficiencies in traditional behavior analysis when it comes to the verbally able. Our research and practice remained in the dark ages while RFT and ACT were in full development, even though both have behavior analytic roots. Why is this? I take it that traditionalists that were married to the ideas of Skinner were ruling the roost at the time and prevented our field from the growth it deserved for many years.
Even when I graduated not many years ago, the ABA education was primarily all about Skinner and direct contingencies. RFT and ACT were mentioned, but almost in passing as if they really didn't apply or matter. Then came my work, which when I first started, was gradually filling up with Behavior Analysts right and left. All were pretty much mentally stuck in second wave ABA. ACT was not a learned skill, and many were not really interested in learning more about it. Why? Not because it wasn't thought to have practicality, but it was mainly because the ABA education drilled into our heads to REMAIN WITHIN OUR SCOPE OF PRACTICE, or else! For many years, ACT was thought as a "talk therapy" and every talk therapy was really considered a psychotherapy. And we are definitely not psychotherapists. But, over the years, vocal leaders like Hayes and Dixon and Yvonne Barnes-Holmes among several others rang the dinner bell for behavior analysts to learn ACT and RFT. They opened the doors for Behavior Analysts to be welcomed in, though I don't think many ABA practitioners began flooding in at first. There may have been more of a trickle. But, ACT and RFT courses for behavior analysts kept coming and more and more practitioners and researchers began creeping in over time. I was one of those sheep. The thing is - once you get in, it's like a light bulb comes on and you realize - well jesus, I guess I don't know everything there is about behavior despite what that framed little paper hanging on my wall says. It was refreshing to be teachable and scale up my knowledge. I really think that I've learned a whole lot more about behavior AFTER I passed my exam. Needless to say, I think there's an educational gap that needs filling.
It's not about me, but I'm trying to set the context for the importance and relevance of this new book and what it represents to our field and to goofballs like me. Above anything else, I believe this book finally validates ACT practice for behavior analysts - that, yes, we CAN actually talk to the verbally able and provide them direct services using the breakdown of the verbal operant and its behavior-behavior relation to direct contingencies. That's beautiful. And I know, I'm not discounting the numerous journal articles that came before this, but this book is front and center.
Strong interest arose when I told co-workers about it when it first came available a couple weeks ago. Interest that was definitely not there before. And all it took was the demigods of Hayes, Dixon and Belisle to publish just for us. I'm not usually prone to hyperbole, but this book may very well be the equivalent of the second coming of Christ, if Jesus was a Behavior Analyst. Yes, it's validation and I believe that it's undoubtably going to take the wave of current change in our field and make it into a tsunami! The possibilities are endless. And who knew a science of language development and learning coupled with an empirically-validated therapeutic model would be this important to behavior analysts?? Oh yeah, we did, and we fumbled. This book helps to pick the ball up and keep running. It's a game changer.
This comprehensive book breaks it all down. Very well written and published by the ABAI. Yes, further validation and credibility. This warms the cockles of my heart. We're kind of like the Jeffersons at this point. We're movin' on up. I now give it about 8 months before the world's problems are completely solved. So, no worries about gun violence and climate change. We'll get it. Lol.
The book is $55, but totally worth it. Mark it up with notes and reference it. And with it - take the module course that just came out on Praxis. A bit pricey, yes, but I'd say worth every penny if you're a freak and into this kind of thing.
Displaying 1 of 1 review