ACT for PTSD: Psychological Flexibility and Core Principles
Booz Allen
Department of Veterans Affairs
Yale University
University of Nevada, Reno
Key Points
- We work on moving toward the client’s chosen values.
- Psychological flexibility allows the trauma survivor to move forward, even when they’re faced with trauma triggers.
Materials Downloads
ACT for Trauma Online Training
Expand your ACT tools to treat clients experiencing PTSD and trauma issues.
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Transcript
In this our last module of our course on ACT for PTSD and other posttraumatic problems in living, I’ll be reviewing the most important concepts from the overall course to work on solidifying your learning and giving you some last thoughts on your continued development as an ACT therapist so that you can take what you’ve learned here and apply it further.
Acceptance and commitment therapy is a behavioral therapy based on functional contextualism. ACT is built on the premise that psychological inflexibility, including cognitive fusion that is the inability to separate one’s thoughts from one’s self or reality and avoidance of one’s negatively evaluated internal experiences, underlies many forms of psychopathology.
Batten, S. V. (2011). Essentials of acceptance and commitment therapy. SAGE Publications Ltd.
Psychological flexibility, on the other hand, is defined as the ability to fully contact the present moment and the thoughts and feelings it contains without needless defense and depending on what the situation affords, persisting in or changing behavior in the pursuit of values and goals. This flexibility is viewed as a pivotal component of healthy human functioning, behavioral change, and resilience in response to stressful or traumatic life events.
Batten, S. V. (2011). Essentials of acceptance and commitment therapy. SAGE Publications Ltd.