Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for Dummies - by Freddy Jackson Brown & Duncan Gillard (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Do you want to change your relationship with painful thoughts and feelings that are holding you back from making changes to improve your life? In Acceptance and Commitment Therapy For Dummies, you'll discover how to identify negative and unhealthy modes of thinking and apply Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) principles throughout your day-to-day life, creating a healthier, richer and more meaningful existence with yourself and others.

Closely connected to Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), ACT is an evidence-based, NICE-approved therapy that uses acceptance and mindfulness strategies mixed in with commitment and behaviour-changing strategies to help people increase their psychological flexibility in both their personal and professional lives. With the help of this straightforward and authoritative guide, you'll find out how to target unpleasant feelings and not act upon them--without sending yourself spiraling down the rabbit hole. The objective is not happiness; rather, it is to be present with what life brings you and to move toward valued behaviour.

• Shows you how to banish unhelpful thoughts
• Guides you to making room for painful feelings
• Teaches you how to engage fully with your here-and-now experience
• Helps you cope with anxiety, depression, stress, OCD and psychosis

Whether you're looking to practice self care at home or are thinking about seeing an ACT therapist, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy For Dummies makes it easier to live a healthier and more productive life in spite of--and alongside--unpleasantness.

From the Back Cover

Learn to:

• Engage fully with your here-and-now experience
• Create distance from unhelpful thoughts
• Make room for painful feelings
• Engage fully in your life despite anxiety, depression, stress, OCD and psychosis

Harness ACT to live the life you want to live

Do you want to change your relationship with the painful thoughts and feelings that are holding you back? With this down-to-earth guide, you'll discover how to identify negative and unhealthy modes of thinking and apply Acceptance and Commitment Therapy principles to create a healthier, richer and more meaningful existence with yourself and others.

• Transform your life - find out how to apply ACT to your everyday life to help reduce the impact of stress, accept love, nurture relationships, cope with anger and manage pain
• ACT for your health - discover how Acceptance and Commitment Therapy is used to support complex mental health difficulties, such as addiction, psychosis, depression and anxiety
• Keep an open mind - get familiar with the basic ideas underpinning ACT and find lots of exercises to practice the core skills that help us be open, aware and active--and how to apply these practices to your life
• Principles and perspectives - learn about the theory and concepts behind ACT and how it's providing new insights into human consciousness, mental health and the mind

Open the book and find:

• Advice on living a life with meaning
• How to use ACT understand our true 'selves'
• Ways to manage anger and stress with ACT
• Guidance on using ACT when living with chronic pain
• How to use ACT to treat addiction and mental distress
• The best ways to increase defusion and acceptance
• Top tips for living mindfully

About the Author

Freddy Jackson Brown is a clinical psychologist and has worked in the NHS for over 20 years. Duncan Gillard is a Senior Educational Psychologist and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy practitioner. He provides psychological services to children, young people, families and school-based professionals.