High Quality
Open the downloaded document, and select print from the file menu (PDF reader required).
CognitiveDeusionand
How Acceptance andCommitment Therapy CanHelp With Your CareerDecision
By Rob Archer –Director,Bloom Psychology Ltd
What is Acceptance & Commitment
1.ACT is a so
‐
called ‘3rd wave’ cognitive behavioural therapy
ACT is a branch of cognitive
‐
behavioral therapy, an empirically based psychologicalintervention that usesacceptanceandmindfulnessstrategies together with
commitment and behavior change strategies to increase psychological flexibility.
2.User
‐
friendly way of dealing with negative emotions
ACT has a reliance on practical techniques and metaphors to ensure it is easy to use andunderstand. I use it with clients who are considerin a chane in career. Often a stressfultime, ACT is a way not so much of ‘tackling’ negative thoughts and emotions but ratherrenegotiating someone’s relationship with them.
.
As a psychologist, I’m always concerned to know that the exercises and techniques I usehave solid evidence behind them. ACT has fantastic evidence base across a wide range of –, , . ,Psychology is pioneering its use within the career psychology area.
What is Cognitive Defusion?
Most conitive behavioural aroaches to neative thinkin seek to eliminate neativethoughts and replace them with positive. However,some negative thoughts simply will not goaway.Indeed, the more you push them away the more they return.Instead, we prefer to practice
cognitive defusion
which encourages clients to detect their
thoughts, and to see them as hypotheses rather than objective facts about the world.The aim of defusionis to try tocatch our mindsat work
telling usstories
that are not objectiveor helful.
We should look
at
our thouhts rather than
throu h
our thouhts
.In other words, treat them like passengers on a bus, chattering away in the background. Somethoughts may be helpful, but most have no real consequence to the direction of our lives.The exercises in the following pages have been modified for use with career decisions, butthe original versions are from the following books. We can highly recommend both!
Add a Comment