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In this episode, Jim interviews psychologist Mike Sinclair. Mike tells a story from his professional life of a client who he has helped a grieving husband. He was struggling with his wife's terminal illness and caught up in a blame story. If you've been affected by loss, then listen to this episode to reflect on …
In this episode, Jim talks to author John Forsyth. John wrote The Mindfulness and Acceptance Workbook for Anxiety. They discuss his book and the impact it had on its readers. John recalls a long-term anxiety sufferer who had tried Cognitive Behavioural Therapy unsuccessfully. He helped him for a short time, but the anxiety and depression …
Listen to my interview with Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) trainer, therapist and supervisor Joe Oliver. Joe is a Clinical Psychologist based in London, UK and runs an ACT training organisation called Contextual Consulting. Activate your Life is a Self-Help book designed to show you an effective approach to navigating problems with anxiety, depression and …
Learn ACT to become a better therapist One of my favourite research papers is “Love yourself as a person, doubt yourself as a therapist.” Published in 2015, the authors share what they discovered when they investigated the impact of therapist in-session behaviours on client outcomes. Interestingly, therapists who embrace self-doubt, practice self-compassion, and actively deal …
Hmm…how might we be failing our clients? At first glance, it looks like there are many reasons why people don’t make progress in therapy. We think: ACT Therapists fuse too! Your mind gives you reasons to explain why clients aren’t improving. When you fuse, you’re more likely to react in unhelpful ways. For example, if …
Using Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for Grief The fantastic thing about ACT is you can use it to help many people. Grief is such a painful experience. It can feel exhausting, overwhelming, and paralysing. You encounter painful and destabilising losses that throw your life into turmoil. How do you find a way back to normality? …
What is the Yearly Roadmap? The Yearly Roadmap is a free guide to help you reflect on the last 12 months and plan for the next year. How will it help you? The end of the year symbolises change, and many people like to start fresh. It’s an opportunity to build on your successes and …
What thoughts and feelings get in the way of your helpful habits? How do you stay motivated when behaviour change is so hard? Therapist and trainer Benji Schoendorff teach you how to complete an ACT Matrix. Grab an A4 piece of paper and pen to complete your ACT Matrix while listening to this interview between …
Why doesn’t ACT focus on symptom reduction? When practitioners discover Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, they are often surprised by the message that symptom reduction is not so significant. For many years psychology services have used self-report measures such as the PHQ9 and GAD7, which focus on specific so-called ‘symptoms’ of depression and anxiety. These tests …
How do you teach Acceptance in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy? We are talking about acceptance in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). It’s often tricky for clinicians because we can fall into the trap of talking about acceptance instead of showing a client how to do it. When this happens, we say things like, “you can’t …
