Acceptance (Technique)

Submitted to Ms. Sara Asad (Lecturer)

Submitted by Javeria Zafar
Program BS (Hons) in Clinical Psychology
Session 2016-2020
Roll No 13
Submission Date 25.05.2019

Criteria Total Marks Obtained Marks

Clarity of presentation 3
Class engagement 1
Body language & voice 1
Time Management 1
Presentation technology 1
Ability to answer questions 1
Hard copy 2
Total Marks 10

Centre for Clinical Psychology

University of the Punjab, Lahore
 Acceptance

Acceptance in human psychology is a person's assent to the reality of a situation,

recognizing a process or condition without attempting to change it or protest it.

Description

Rather than trying to control and change everything, perhaps there are some things you

can learn to accept and make the best of. For example, perhaps you won’t be perfect in your job,

but you could learn to appreciate what you can do. Rather than criticizing yourself for having a

problem or catastrophizing the problem, start with

‘I accept that I have a problem with [name the problem], and now I will try to find a

solution to that problem.’

Gently state the label of the experience you aren’t accepting. For example, if you’re not

accepting that you’re angry, state in your mind, to yourself, ‘I’m feeling angry now… I’m

feeling angry.’ In this way, you begin to acknowledge your feeling.

Question to pose

We learn to accept a lot of things in life. Think about practicing a detached acceptance of

what is going on.

 Act as an observer—someone who does not necessarily need to act.

 How would you describe what is going on without passing a judgment on it or

recommending an action?

 Are there any advantages you might experience as a detached observer?

  If you decided to be a detached observer and watch these events just go by?

Examples

If you’re lost, even if you have a map of where you want to get to, you have no hope of

getting there, if you don’t know where you are to start with. You need to know and accept where

you are before you can begin working out how to get to where you want to be. Paradoxically,

acceptance is the first step for any radical change. If you don’t acknowledge where you are and

what’s currently happening, you can’t move on appropriately from that point.

"No one likes me" or, "I won't be able to handle the job interview tomorrow", we're much

more likely to get sucked in, treat them as true, or see them as a type of thinking that's a problem

and must be purged. Someone will never stop having those kinds of thoughts, but with practice

they can get better at not reacting to them. It can be visualized as standing by a river and briefly

noting leaves as they drift by.

Homework

 You accept the fact that you are hungry, need to sleep, have to pay your bills, go to work,

get stuck in traffic, or that it is hot or cold. You don’t protest or worry about these things.

 Acceptance can involve becoming an observer who does not judge or interpret or control.

The observer sees and accepts.

 Let’s look at some of the things that you worry about and see how you could learn to

accept them.

 “I will fail the exam.” and write down a description of what has actually happened.
  Avoid making any predictions, interpretations, judgments, or solutions. Simply describe

the event or situation.

 Then estimate the costs and benefits of simply accepting. Try to be passive, to feel no

protest, just acceptance.”

Possible Problems

Many worriers pride themselves on preventing bad things from happening. Acceptance is

the ability to accept what may happen. The therapist can help patients examine the costs and
benefits of solving versus accepting. It is often helpful to have patients examine all the things

they accept daily.