Using the Inflexahex Model in ACT Case Conceptualization: Dominance by the Past or the Feared Future
MidAmerican Psychological Institute
Pickslyde Consulting
Key Points
- Language helps us to remember important things from the past or plan events in the future.
- This skillset can sometimes pull us out of the present moment in unhelpful ways.
- PTSD is domination by the past and generalized anxiety disorder is domination by a feared future.
- Mindfulness can assist with these types of concerns.
Materials Downloads
ACT Online Training
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Transcript
In this training for Acceptance and Commitment Therapy case conceptualization, we’ll look at the converse relationship between contact with the present moment and dominance by the past or the feared future.
Many clients are fused with the verbally constructed past and future at the expense of contact with the current environment and effective behavior in the present moment. Thanks to language or relational framing, participating in now can be a challenge. Words just seem to have a pull towards the future and the past and even often towards the negative.
In the original ACT book by Hayes, Strosahl and Wilson from 1999, the authors write “a mind is a wonderful tool for detecting and evaluating external dangers and developing plans for adapting to these demands but we cannot avoid applying these same processes to the content of our private world. When we do so, we both see and produce negativity.”
Hayes, S. C., Strosahl, K., & Wilson, K. G. (1999). Acceptance and Commitment Therapy: An experiential approach to behavior change. New York: Guilford Press.