Treatment Protocols

ACT is an orientation to psychotherapy that is based on functional contextualism as a philosophy and RFT as a theory. As such, it is not a specific set of techniques. ACT protocols target the processes of language that are hypothesized to be involved in psychopathology and its amelioration, such as:

• cognitive fusion -- the domination of stimulus functions based on literal language even when that process is harmful,
• experiential avoidance -- the phenomenon that occurs when a person is unwilling to remain in contact with particular private experiences and takes steps to alter the form or frequency of these events and the contexts that occasion them, even when doing so causes psychological harm
• the domination of a conceptualized self over the "self as context" that emerges from perspective taking and deictic relational frames
• lack of values, confusion of goals with values, and other values problems that can underly the failure to build broad and flexible repertoires
• inability to build larger unit of behavior through commitment to behavior that moves in the direction of chosen values

and other such processes. Technologically, ACT uses both traditional behavior therapy techniques (defined broadly to include everything from cognitive therapy to behavior analysis), as well as others that are more recent or that have largely emerged from outside the behavior tradition, such as cognitive defusion, acceptance, mindfulness, values, and commitment methods. ACT protocols are thus instances of a strategy. ACT protocols can vary from very short interventions done in minutes or hours, to those that take many sessions. When an ACT strategy is aplied to a given problem it will include specific interventions designed to help with that specific difficulty, and thus every population will lead to different ACT protocols ... and there will be variation even with specific populations based on the creativity of the researcher/clinician and relative emphasis on various ACT/RFT-sensible processes. For all of these reasons and many more, the world ACT community has chosen not to ossify the treatment through processes of centralization, certification and the like, preferring to trust its development to open scientific processes. These include sharing of protocols, identification of processes of change, outcome research, basic research, and so on. Protocols cited or displayed here are not the ACT approach to any given problem, but an ACT approach in the eyes of the serious researchers who post them. They are not "official" or "recognized" or approved by anyone by virtue of their posting here, but are offered as a resource to the world ACT community so that development of the approach can be accelerated. Clinical use of the protocols is the responsibility of those who choose to use them. If you plan to use these protocols in research, you should of course interact with the listed authors.

Site Members: If you have an ACT treatment protocol you would like listed here, click on the "add child page" link at the bottom of this page. When adding your content, remember that you can attach relevant files and documents.