Acceptance and Commitment Therapy

Mental Health @ Home book review: Be Mighty by Jill A. Stoddard

Book Review: Be Mighty

Be Mighty by Jill A. Stoddard draws on acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) to help women free themselves from the anxiety, worry, and stress that are holding them back. The author observes that if you get attached to narratives about being damaged or broken, you’re “probably a frequent flier at the popular hot spot known …

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Mental Health @ Home book reviews: cover of What Makes You Stronger

Book Review: What Makes You Stronger

What Makes You Stronger by Louise L. Hayes, Joseph V. Ciarrochi, and Ann Bailey uses an acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) approach to support greater psychological flexibility. The authors write, “This book offers you a radical premise: Trying to control the wrong things brings loss of control. If you try to control how you think …

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Mental Health @ Home book review: The Anxious Perfectionist

Book Review: The Anxious Perfectionist

The Anxious Perfectionist by Clarissa W. Ong and Michael P. Twohig uses an acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) approach to help readers who struggle with perfectionism. I’m a big fan of ACT, and I think it makes a great approach for perfectionism. The book begins by exploring what perfectionism is, including the differences between adaptive …

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Setting goals as endpoints vs. identifying valued directions to head in

Setting Goals vs. Identifying Valued Directions

Goal-setting is a popular thing; plug it into Google search, and there are billions of hits. But is goal-setting always the best approach? Maybe identifying and heading in valued directions can be a good alternative some of the time, especially if something like mental illness is making the whole goals thing difficult. Valued directions in …

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Mental Health @ Home book review: The ACT Workbook for Perfectionism

Book Review: The ACT Workbook for Perfectionism

The ACT Workbook for Perfectionism by Jennifer Kemp aims to boost self-compassion and improve psychological flexibility using acceptance and commitment therapy. The author is a therapist who has dealt with perfectionism herself, and she incorporates her own experiences to provide examples of the concepts being covered. She had tried cognitive behavioural therapy and didn’t find …

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Mental Health @ Home book review: The ACT Workbook for Anger

Book Review: The ACT Workbook for Anger

The ACT Workbook for Anger by Robyn D. Walser and Manuela O’Connell uses an acceptance and commitment therapy approach to support readers in better managing anger. Anger is framed as a mix of feelings, physiological sensations, thoughts, and actions, and the authors explain that experiencing it is normal; it’s getting hooked on it that can …

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Mental Health @ Home book review: When Life Hits Hard by Russ Harris

Book Review: When Life Hits Hard

When Life Hits Hard by Russ Harris draws on acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) to explore dealing with grief. I’m a big fan of the author based on his other writings about ACT, and this book didn’t disappoint. The book is divided into three sections: regroup, rebuild, and revitalize. Grief is framed as a process …

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Acceptance and Commitment Therapy Metaphors

Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) is really big on using metaphors to convey key concepts. This post will take a look at a few of them. Self-as-context metaphors Chessboard A core message of ACT is that our self is the context for what happens inside our heads, not the content of it. One metaphor for …

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