The intuitive mind is a sacred gift and the rational mind is a faithful servant. We have created a society that honors the servant and has forgotten the gift.

           ~~ Albert Einstein

Learning Psychological Flexibility ::

Mindfulness Based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

Modern clinical-experimental psychology has extended a number of therapeutic methods based on concepts and practices of mindfulness . . .

Mindfulness Defined as Psychological Flexibility

Skillful Awareness Allows Vital Life Adaptation

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Mindfulness Conceptualized
As Psychological Flexibility 

A Summary of The Six Core Processes of Acceptance Commitment Therapy:
Connection Defusion Expansion Observation Values Action 

Mindfulness – Skillful Means – Psychological Flexibilty

Sustaining Value Guided Actions

Connection
Connection involves the ability hold in awareness the value of “turning toward life,” and with steadfast intention we grow to actively skillfully-behave in a manner that works best — for you. The practice of ACT gives you as much room as necessary for you to decide just what behavioral direction you value. What functions best for you? You get to pick, and you get what you pick!

Through your own willingness to sustain intentional focused awareness, you learn to earnestly engage in “value guided behavior.” Such value directed actions are, we presume, most likely to lead you, in a behavioral sense,  toward the life direction that woks best — for you. ACT helps us cultivate the skill  to persevere and attend to experiential nuances, noticing attraction, noticing aversion, simply noticing  . . . the richness of present experience. A personal willingness must be engaged . . . a certain experiential flow . . .  expansion and contraction within our awareness . . . as we make “Psychological Contact” with what we value doing in . . . this present moment — just as it is. “Connecting intentionally” with whatever is happening right here, right now. In the practice of ACT, this is called “Contacting the Present Moment”.

Defusion

“Cognitive Defusion” involves learning the skill to “step back” from your mind’s activity, or detach from unhelpful or distressing thoughts, worries, judgments and disturbing memories: instead of getting caught up in your own thinking, pushed around by your mind’s activity, or habitually struggling to get rid of what you are experiencing right now, you learn how to let thought-experience come and go . . . ‘You” watching your mind . . . thinking, thinking . . .  planning, planning . . . somewhat like watching your mind’s verbal “story-lines.”

The practice of cognitive defusion finds us “observing our own minds” as our internal commentary perpetually floats through awareness, like experiential story-bubbles flowing through and wandering within the mind. You learn how to step back and watch your own thinking, so you can learn to respond effectively – instead of getting “fused”  . . . . tangled up or lost-trapped . . . inside your judging and categorizing mind.

Expansion

This involves the means to  open up and “make room” for distressing emotions or even unwanted bodily sensations.  We learn how to drop the struggle with our own ideas, give our thoughts and emotions some breathing space, and let them be there — present in experience — just as these are — without getting all caught up in them, or overwhelmed by them; the more we can open up, and give our mind’s  room to move, the easier it is for our emotions to come and go without draining us or holding us back. Essentially, this is what ACT means by “Acceptance.”

“Cognative Defusion” involves opening up and “gently noticing” distressing emotions or unwanted bodily sensations.  You learn how to drop the struggle with your own ideas, giving your thoughts and emotions some breathing space, and simply allowing them be there — present in you experience — just as they are — without getting all caught up in them, or overwhelmed by them; the more you can open up, and give your mind  room to move, the easier it is for your emotions to come and go without draining you or holding you back. Technically in ACT, this is what is meant by “Psychological Acceptance.”

The Observing Self

Is the part of you that is responsible for awareness and attention. Author Russ Harris explained: “We don’t have a word for it in common everyday language – we normally just talk about the ‘mind’. But there are two parts to the mind: The Thinking Self – that is, the part that is always thinking; the part that is responsible for all your thoughts, beliefs, memories, judgments, fantasies etc. And then there’s The Observing Self – the part of your mind that is able to be aware of whatever you are thinking or feeling or doing at any moment.

Some traditions have called this “The Silent Witness” or “The Observing Self.”  Without this human capacity, one couldn’t develop effective mindfulness skills. And the more you practice mindfulness skills, the more you’ll become aware of this aspect and ability of  your mind. You learn to grow able – developing the “Skillful-Means” to  access the observing-self when you most need to sustain adaptive awareness. This skill is ultimately necessary if you are to learn to persevere in ACTIONS that function to vitalize your life-experience.”

Values

Such “Vital Life Values” are what you want your life to be about, deep in your heart. What you want to stand for. What you want to do with your time on this planet. What ultimately matters to you in the big picture. What you would like to be remembered for by the people you love.

Committed Action 
Means taking action guided by your values – doing what matters to you – especially when it’s difficult or uncomfortable! Many aspects of coping with our most vital-lives will confront us with disquiet and distress. Our outcome is to persevere — intentionally — with momentary responses that work for us. If we learn to achieve our aim and become increasingly  ”Psychologically Flexible,” we live in line with what we value.

When you put all these notions and practices together, you can behold a sense just what Acceptance and Commitment Therapy calls “Psychological Flexibility.” In my best estimation, this is otherwise known in various meditation traditions as “Mindfulness and Skillful Means“

Such enhanced awareness involves the ability to sustain contact with the “present moment.” Such momentary awareness skills can be cultivated in a number of ways. ACT is just one of them. Academic Clinical Psychology has posited that psychological “openness to experience” is the most vial ability an individual can master! From the ACT perspective it is clearly imperative that we learn to sustain an open, accepting, flexible awareness and — persevere skillful — especially in a behavioral sense.”

This is ultimately what some meditation traditions point toward in encouraging us to practice “skillful means.” Attentive and aware of our values, we behave in accordance with what works.

In must be clear to us, that we somehow value the ability to remain psychologically present, open up, and do what matters.

ACT helps us cultivate the ability to DO what really WORKS best for us! The greater our ability to do that, the more skillful we are . . . the better our quality of life is – the greater our sense of vitality, wellbeing and realistic fulfillment.

From an Acceptance  vantage point, you must earnestly endeavor to cultivate the willingness to: Get Out of Your Mind and Into Your Life! 

Explore a More Social-Scientific way to talk about Acceptance and Commitment Therapy in Seattle. Functional Contextualism and Behavior Analytic Psychology.

 

The Six Core Processes of  ::

Acceptance Commitment Therapy ::

Connection:

Attending & Actively Turning Toward Life

Defusion:

Author Detach & See Past Verbal Tangles

Expansion:

Psychologically Flexible Open to Experience

Observation:
Skillful Workability & Self Response Able

Values:
Mindful Life Direction & Value Clarification

Action:

Exposure & Perseverance & Reward Value

Exposure is the Single Most Powerful Intervention ::
Robustly Therapeutic!

“In terms of its effect sizes, ‘exposure’ is the single most powerful intervention in the whole of psychology. And a solid understanding of how to apply it is essential for the effective treatment of anxiety disorders. Yet many therapists and coaches have little or no idea of what exposure is; many others are familiar with the concept but have had little or no training in how to do it effectively.  ( John Forsyth, 2012 )   

John Forsyth, the world’s leading expert in the use of ACT with anxiety disorders, shows you how to use exposure effectively, efficiently and compassionately, within an ACT framework.

ACT teaches clients how to be with their hurts and do what works—to live well, richly, and meaningfully, without first having to defeat or eliminate sources of emotional and psychological pain. This is often challenging for both therapists and clients alike, and without a solid grounding in the compassionate use of exposure, these efforts can easily fail or backfire.

 

O body swayed to music, O brightening glance

How can we know the dancer from the dance?

~~ William Yates

ACCEPTANCE AND COMMITMENT THERAPY

Second Edition
The Process and Practice of Mindful Change
Steven C. Hayes, Kirk D. Strosahl and Kelly G. Wilson

Now in a revised and updated new edition, this book provides the definitive statement of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT)—from conceptual and empirical foundations to clinical techniques—written by its originators. ACT is based on the idea that psychological rigidity is a root cause of a wide range of clinical problems. The authors describe effective, innovative ways to cultivate psychological flexibility by detecting and targeting six key processes: defusion, acceptance, attention to the present moment, self-awareness, values, and committed action. Sample therapeutic exercises and patient–therapist dialogues are integrated throughout.

New to This Edition of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy

 

The Divided Brain: 

A Fascinating Animation About Neuroscience and Brain Function..

MBCT A Guide to Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy

 Is Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy Effective?

 

 

At the still point of the turning world.
Neither flesh nor fleshless;
Neither from nor towards; at the still point, there the dance is,
But neither arrest nor movement.
And do not call it fixity,

Where past and future are gathered. 
Neither movement from nor towards,
Neither ascent nor decline.
Except for the point, the still point,
There would be no dance, and there is only the dance.

  — T.S. Eliot  ”Burnt Norton”

Counseling & Psychotherapy