Slide 1

There are six

essential
sub-processes
in ACT

Essential
Components
of ACT

Slide 2

Acceptance

Essential
Components
of ACT

Slide 3

Acceptance

Essential
Components
of ACT
Defusion

Slide 4

Acceptance

Essential
Components
of ACT
Defusion

Self as
Context

Slide 5

Contact with the

Present Moment

Acceptance

Essential
Components
of ACT
Defusion

Self as
Context

Slide 6

Contact with the

Present Moment

Acceptance

Values

Essential
Components
of ACT
Defusion

Self as
Context

Slide 7

Contact with the

Present Moment

Acceptance

Values

Essential
Components
of ACT
Defusion

Committed
Action

Self as
Context

Slide 8

Colloquially:

Let Go

Acceptance

Shared
Property
Relations
Defusion

More technically:

Undermine
Excessive Literality

There are several

kinds of relations
among these six
essential subprocesses. Shared
property relations are
those in which each
component together
forms a functional
unit. Defusion and
acceptance are both
about undermining
excessive literality, or
(more colloquially)
letting go.

Slide 9

Colloquially:

Let Go

Show Up

Contact with the

Present Moment

Acceptance

Shared
Property
Relations
Defusion

Self as
Context

More technically:

Undermine
Excessive Literality

Verbal and
Non-Verbal

Self as context and

contact with the
present moment both
involve verbal and
non-verbal aspects of
here and now, or
more colloquially,
showing up.
These processes are
in the center of the
hexagram because
issues of being are
central to all of the
other processes and
at one level of
analysis ACT can be
distilled down into a
single word: Be.

Slide 10

Colloquially:

Let Go

Show Up

Get Moving

Contact with the

Present Moment

Acceptance

Values

Shared
Property
Relations
Defusion

Committed
Action

that is they
are about
getting
moving

Self as
Context

More technically:

Undermine
Excessive Literality

Verbal and
Non-Verbal

Values and
Committed
action
involve
positive uses
of language
to choose and
complete
courses of
action ...

Build Positive
Use of Language

Slide 11

Dialectical relations exist between undermining and promoting

language functions in the service of acceptance and change

Acceptance

Values

Defusion

Committed
Action

Facets of the
Acceptance and Change
Dialectic

Slide 12

Contact with the

Present Moment

Acceptance

Values

Facilitative
Relations

Defusion

Committed
Action

Self as
Context

Some
relations are
simply
mutually
facilitative ...
for example
defusion
helps make
contact with
the present
moment
possible
while
contacting
the present
moment
provides the
events that
may need to
be defused
from

Slide 13

This then is the

overall
ACT model

Contact with the

Present Moment

Acceptance

Values

Defusion

Committed
Action

Self as
Context

Slide 14

Acceptance and
Mindfulness
Processes

Contact with the

Present Moment

You can chunk

them into two
larger groups

Acceptance

Values

Defusion

Committed
Action

Self as
Context

Slide 15

and

Contact with the

Present Moment

Commitment
and Behavior
Change Processes

Acceptance

Values

Defusion

Committed
Action

Thus the name

Acceptance and
Commitment
Therapy

Self as
Context

Slide 16

The Essence of
ACT Work

Contact with the

Present Moment

Acceptance

Values

is this
psychological
space

Defusion

and what it is,

is the answer to
this central ...

Committed
Action

Self as
Context

Slide 17

ACT Question

Contact with the

Present Moment

(6) at this time, in

this situation?

(2) are you willing to

have that stuff, fully
and without defense
Acceptance

If the answer is
yes, that is
what builds...
Defusion

(3) as it is, and not as

what it says it is,

Values
(5) of your chosen
values

Psychological
Flexibility
(4) AND do what
takes you in the
direction
Committed
Action

Self as (1) Given a distinction between

Context
you and the stuff you are
struggling with and trying to
change

Slide 18

Psychological Flexibility
Psychological flexibility is contacting the present
moment fully as a conscious, historical human being,
and based on what the situation affords changing or
persisting in behavior in the service of chosen values.

4/21/2005

Slide 19

We Can Now Define ACT

ACT is a functional contextual therapy approach based on
Relational Frame Theory which views human psychological
problems dominantly as problems of psychological inflexibility
fostered by cognitive fusion and experiential avoidance. In the
context of a therapeutic relationship, ACT brings direct
contingencies and indirect verbal processes to bear on the
experiential establishment of greater psychological flexibility
primarily through acceptance, defusion, establishment of a
transcendent sense of self, contact with the present moment, values,
and building larger and larger patterns of committed action linked to
those values.
Said more simply, ACT uses acceptance and mindfulness processes,
and commitment and behavior change processes, to produce greater
psychological flexibility.

4/21/2005