Content area
Full text
LUOMA, J. B., HAYES, S. C, & WALSER, R. D. (2007) Learning ACT: An Acceptance & Commitment Therapy Skills-Training Manual for Therapists Oakland, CA: New Harbinger Publications Pp. vii-304, ISBN: 978-1-5722-498-6
Although it is still a relatively new treatment, a growing literature suggests that acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT, pronounced as the word "act") can be effective across a wide range of problems and clients (for a review see Hayes, Luoma, Bond, Masuda, & Lillis, 2006). The purpose of Learning ACT: An Acceptance & Commitment Therapy SkillsTraining Manual for Therapists is to provide the reader with an easy-tofollow manual for learning the skills required to use ACT effectively in clinical practice. For those interested in a detailed theoretical and philosophical examination of ACT, the authors of the training manual recommend Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (Hayes, Strosahl, & Wilson, 1999), as do we. That volume forms the foundation on which the training manual is based, but it need not be read to derive significant benefit from the manual.
Learning Act is 304 pages in length and comprises 10 accessible chapters organized in a logical and informative sequence. In general, the writing is clear and the book is easy to understand. Old-school behavior analysts will find some of the language imprecise, mentalistic, and objectionable (see Dougher, 2002), but the book is not targeting that audience.
Chapter 1 ("The Six Core Processes of ACT and Their Common Target") defines ACT as "a psychological intervention based on modern behavioral psychology, including RFT [relational frame theory], that applies mindfulness and acceptance processes, and commitment and behavior change processes, to the creation of psychological flexibility" (p. 22) and introduces its six core processes. This chapter also overviews the general goal of ACT, which is to increase psychological flexibility, which is "the ability to contact the present moment more fully as a conscious human being, and based on what the situation affords, to change or persist in behavior in order to serve valued ends" (p. 17).
Chapter 2 ("Developing Willingness/Acceptance") describes the first core therapeutic process of ACT, which is acceptance. Acceptance is a psychological skill, as are all of the core processes of ACT. Willingness/acceptance allows the client to embrace private events as they are without attempts to change their topography...