Dancing around the hexaflex: Using ACT in practice 6

Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) can be slippery to describe. It’s an approach that doesn’t aim to change thought content, but instead to help us shift the way we relate to what our mind tells us. It’s also an approach focused on workability: pragmatic and context-specific analysis of how well a strategy is working to achieve being able to do what matters. Over the next few posts I want to give some examples of how non-psychologists (remember ACT is open for anyone to use it!) can use ACT in session. Actions: It’s what we’re about You know the old saying “All talk, no action”? There are times I think people with pain get much more talk-talk-talk than action, and the actions that get done are those to please other people. Let’s unpack the ‘committed action’ part of the ACT hexaflex. Actions are either done – or not. No half-actions here! Goals, as I mentioned in Using ACT in practice 5, can take our focus away from what we are doing to what we hope we’ll achieve. In other words, goals can take us away from the intrinsic experiences of moving towards something that matters. If we’re only looking at ticking the goal off our to do list it becomes hard to be in the moment as we journey towards that result. But if we look at rehabilitation practice, particularly if we’re funded by an insurer who wants to see ‘outcomes’ because they’re paying for it, often we see a list of &...
Source: HealthSkills Weblog - Category: Anesthesiology Authors: Tags: ACT - Acceptance & Commitment Therapy Occupational therapy Pain conditions Physiotherapy Psychology Science in practice acceptance and commitment therapy biopsychosocial Chronic pain Clinical reasoning pain management Therapeutic app Source Type: blogs