Peter,

  Thanks for this note. I agree with you that ACT is a sophisticated form of therapy. I appreciate its use of metaphor, its focus on mindful awareness and acceptance and emphasis on engagement and values based living. As I noted, it overlaps much with my CALM MO approach and I use many of its techniques and principles in my work.

 

My primary critiques of it include the following:

 

Because it is philosophically and conceptually grounded in Steve Hayes’ post-Skinnerian relational frame theory, it has a limited (and in many ways, unnecessarily complicated) theoretical structure.

 

It is unnecessarily defined against traditional Beck/Ellis cognitive therapy (i.e., sometimes it makes sense to observe and move through thoughts like ACT recommends and other times to engage and work to re-author them). The UTUA metatheoretical viewpoint makes clear why Hayes’ view is limited and defined against traditional cognitive therapy.

 

It is weak in its attention to relationship process variables. It does not include much in terms of attachment theory; Influence Matrix variable analysis; False/Defensive Self v. True/Authentic self frames.

 

It is not strong on the relationship between self-consious and subconscious processes, nor psychodynamic defenses (except for suppression/repression which ACT couches as experiential avoidance).

 

It overshoots in its framing of all justification variables (i.e., attributions, describing, narrating, telling the story of one’s life) as being essentially rationalizations—and it privileges actions as a function of its Skinnerian lineage.

 

It is weak in its broader philosophical analysis (e.g., big picture views of science, meaning of life and foundational values, socio-political theory, etc).

 

Best,

G

 

 

 

 

 

From: tree of knowledge system discussion <[log in to unmask]> On Behalf Of Peter Limberg
Sent: Tuesday, April 23, 2019 8:27 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: ACT CALMly

 

I discovered ACT a few years ago and at the time I thought it was one of the better psychotherapeutic modalities out there. I like the idea of Dirty Pain v Clean Pain ... the latter is running away from the reality of the pain.

 

On Tue, Apr 23, 2019 at 8:11 AM Henriques, Gregg - henriqgx <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

Hi List,

 Below is a link to an essay on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy that folks might find to be of value:

https://aeon.co/essays/how-to-live-a-values-driven-life-in-the-face-of-dark-emotions

 

  ACT (said as the word) is one of the major “third wave” forms of cognitive and behavior therapies. It emphasizes mindful awareness of one’s emotions and how to remain committed toward one’s goals and valued states of being. CALM MO, the integrated approach to psychological mindfulness that is the 8^th branch of the UTUA framework overlaps significantly with the basic ACT principles.

 

On another note, the TOK miniconference was a success and many interesting ideas were exchanged. I will be sharing some updates soon.

Best,
Gregg

 

___________________________________________

Gregg Henriques, Ph.D.
Professor
Department of Graduate Psychology
216 Johnston Hall
MSC 7401
James Madison University
Harrisonburg, VA 22807
(540) 568-7857 (phone)
(540) 568-4747 (fax)

Be that which enhances dignity and well-being with integrity.

Check out my Theory of Knowledge blog at Psychology Today at:

https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/theory-knowledge

 

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