Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)?

[sugarsugar]

My new therapist sent me something about ACT, which I’ve never heard of or seen discussed. Does anyone have experience or been helped with this approach?  I tried to read the attachment but admit anything discussing mindfulness or acceptance is a total discussion ender for me. I’m trying to keep an open mind anyway. What should I know about this stuff?  Apparently this is her approach. 

[DogMan]

I did maybe 4 sessions. Lots of "Life sucks, and that's OK" type stuff. Some mindfulness. And an emphasis on yourself as a self aware being. 

 

2 out of 10. Would not recommend. 

[Banana Smurf]

I've done some self help stuff that is ACT focused and I find it particularly helpful for things like intrusive thoughts where it helps me to be more aware of my response to them and accept them because therapists have kept telling me that most people have disturbing intrusive thoughts, they just are able to ignore them, so I just like to hear it over and over again.  

[ananke]

there are three components, mindfulness stuff, acceptance (mine's leant more towards Banana Smurfs experience) and values. Like rather than focusing on goals, its more about becoming the person you want to be: https://www.getselfhelp.co.uk/act.htm 

i havent really found mindfulness helpful, but the other two aspects have helped. particularly with self esteem/intrusive thoughts

[Iceberg]

In one of my psychopathology classes, we had to attend presentations on various talk therapy methods. I stumbled across the ACT one I had. One of the main take home points was that mental illness and the bad results don’t speak to “you” as a person .... and to eliminate holding yourself at fault when things go bad. There is as said above a big mindfulness component, but I agree that I’ve heard that so many times I get no benefit from it anymore. Interestingly, it is becoming a pretty common intervention for those with serious physical illness who are experiencing depression etc. as part of their health situation 

[sugarsugar]

I read through all the materials tdoc sent me. One mood tracker type thing with self help “how do I feel “ type stuff. One workbook with planner of who to turn to, plans to sleep, eat, etc. and a very tedious ACT self help manual with stuff I won’t do. Many things were similar to self hypnosis, and since I was totally screwed up by hypnotherapy I’m not going there. The examples were bizarre to me. Picture yourself in quicksand (why?), picture yourself in a boat taking on water, that type thing. I’m having trouble seeing the value in such imagery. It’s making me wonder about this. I’ve already said any type guided imagery crap is out due to similarities to hypnosis. This seems like lots of imagery and visualization. This could be a very interesting therapy experience if these materials represent what’s to come. Not interesting in a good way. But I’m trying to keep an open mind. 

[sugarsugar]

OK session 2, after 2 months, is tomorrow. I barely remember last time. No idea how this can work but I will try to work with her. I read the materials she sent but remember almost nothing. My next appointment is in 2 weeks so maybe I can build some momentum. Seems an ineffective system but I’m trying not to prejudge. 

[dancesintherain]

I give you  a lot of credit for the openness.  I'm not familiar with it, so I can't speak to how typical the materials are or aren't. 

[Antecedent]

The main thing is that the therapist is flexible and pays attention to what elements of ACT work for you and what don't work for you personally and need to be discarded, I think it's a pretty good model I haven't had it but it sounds pretty good and practical and warm

Edited October 1, 2020 by Antecedent

[sugarsugar]

Since it had been 2 months since the last visit, this seemed unrelated. The video wouldn’t connect so we reverted to phone. We mainly talked about my recent snafu at work, which wasn’t my intention but that’s ok. Next appointment in 2 weeks and hope for better. 

[sugarsugar]

Now that I’ve had a half dozen video visits, doesn’t seem much different from any other talk therapy. I do talk about what’s going on but can’t say there’s been a huge focus on the “main” issue, although that’s ok since I’ve made a little improvement there anyway. Makes we wonder why I had to read up on it in advance but I did. She may use a certain approach but it all seems like talk to me. 

[echolocation]

interesting. makes me wonder if it's just not a very structured kind of therapy in practice. what might be insightful is defining the things that have improved for you and comparing it to the original goals of ACT i figure your initial reading would have talked about.

personally i found when i did video therapy, i found it hard to talk about any really deep issues. we mostly covered surface-level day to day events and how they impacted me. i think it had to do with the fact that i couldn't get into a therapy mindset just being in my house at my laptop. i was relieved when my tdoc went back to in person visits.

Edited January 31 by echolocation
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