A Practical Guide to Acceptance and Commitment Therapy

This volume is the most practical clinical guide on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) yet available. It is designed to show how the ACT model and techniques apply to various disorders, settings, and delivery options with the goal of allowing researchers and clinicians to begin applying ACT wherever it seems to fit. The book is divided into three sections, with chapters demonstrating the effectiveness of using ACT in the treatment approach for a wide range of clinical problems. The first section describes the theory underlying Acceptance and Commitment Therapy as a treatment approach and the core intervention processes that encompass ACT. The second section presents ACT as it is applied to some typical behavioral disorders encountered by mental health and substance abuse practitioners. The last section examines ACT as it is used with a variety of other populations, problems, settings, and modes of delivery. This volume will be of great value to therapists, practitioners, and students who are interested in new developments in cognitive and behavior therapy.

Steven C. Hayes, Ph.D. is Nevada Foundation Professor at the Department of Psychology at the University of Nevada. An author of more than twenty books and more than 325 scientific articles, his career has focused on an analysis of the nature of human language and cognition and the application of this to the understanding and alleviation of human suffering. In 1992 he was listed by the Institute for Scientific Information as the 30th "highest impact" psychologist in the world during 1986-1990 based on the citation impact of his writings. Dr. Hayes has been President of Division 25 of the American Psychological Association, of the American Association of Applied and Preventive Psychology and of the Association for Advancement of Behavior Therapy. He was the first Secretary-Treasurer of the American Psychological Society, which he helped form. He has received the Don F. Hake Award for Exemplary Contributions to Basic Behavioral Research and Its Applications from Division 25 of the American Psychological Association and was appointed by HHS Secretary Donna Shalala to a 5 year term on the National Advisory Council on Drug Abuse in the NIH.