Acceptance And Commitment Therapy Paper

According to Spiegler (2016), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) has been used for many forms of human suffering, including eating disorders. Research indicates that ACT may be a valuable treatment for eating pathology (Juarascio, Shaw, Forman, Timko, Herbert, Butryn, & Lowe, 2013). Factors targeted by ACT are highly significant among adults with eating disorders. Juarascio, Shaw, Forman, Timko, Herbert, Butryn, and Lowe (2013) discussed the development of a group-based treatment for eating disorders, described the construction of the manual and how it is tailored for an eating disorder population according to ACT treatment strategies, and examined the clinical strategies for effectively executing interventions. Juarascio, Shaw, Forman, …show more content…
The treatment manual consists of eight, 75-minunte group sessions. Each session reports core ACT components like developing openness to an acceptance perspective, encouraging a willingness to accept distress, teaching defusion from thoughts and feelings, and clarifying life values. The key therapeutic objective of ACT is to encourage psychological flexibility. This basically means that the main therapeutic goal of ACT is to encourage the ability to change behaviors in the search of goals and values, even when this brings the client into contact with aversive internal experiences. Hence, symptom reduction is not highlighted in ACT treatment of eating disorders, instead on helping patients live a more valued life is stressed. The six psychological processes that encourage psychological flexibility are: acceptance, defusion, present-moment awareness, self-as-context, values, and behavioral commitment. These six processes can be reviewed as the three main targets of ACT, which are: being open (acceptance and defusion), centered (present-moment awareness and self-as-context), and engaged (values and behavioral commitments). The primary goal of psychological