A Liberated Mind

"In all my years studying personal growth, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy is one of the most useful tools I've ever come across, and in this book, Dr. Hayes describes it with more depth and clarity than ever before."-Mark Manson, #1 New York Times best-selling author of The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck Life is not a problem to be solved. ACT shows how we can live full and meaningful lives by embracing our vulnerability and turning toward what hurts. In this landmark book, the originator and pioneering researcher into Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) lays out the psychological flexibility skills that make it one of the most powerful approaches research has yet to offer. These skills have been shown to help even where other approaches have failed. Science shows that they are useful in virtually every area--mental health (anxiety, depression, substance abuse, eating disorders, PTSD); physical health (chronic pain, dealing with diabetes, facing cancer); social processes (relationship issues, prejudice, stigma, domestic violence); and performance (sports, business, diet, exercise). How does psychological flexibility help? We struggle because the problem-solving mind tells us to run from what causes us fear and hurt. But we hurt where we care. If we run from a sense of vulnerability, we must also run from what we care about. By learning how to liberate ourselves, we can live with meaning and purpose, along with our pain when there is pain. Although that is a simple idea, it resists our instincts and programming. The flexibility skills counter those ingrained tendencies. They include noticing our thoughts with curiosity, opening to our emotions, attending to what is in the present, learning the art of perspective taking, discovering our deepest values, and building habits based around what we deeply want. Beginning with the epiphany Steven Hayes had during a panic attack, this book is a powerful narrative of scientific discovery filled with moving stories as well as advice for how we can put flexibility skills to work immediately. Hayes shows how allowing ourselves to feel fully and think freely moves us toward commitment to what truly matters to us. Finally, we can live lives that reflect the qualities we choose.

Over the last 35 years, Steven C. Hayes and his colleagues have developed Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) with many hundreds of studies supporting the impact of his approach on everything from chronic pain to weight loss to prejudice and bigotry. A Liberated Mind is the summary of Steven’s life’s work which will teach readers how to live better, happier and more fulfilled lives by applying the six key processes of ACT. Put together these processes teach us to pivot: to “defuse” rather than fuse with our thoughts; to see life from a new perspective; and to discover our chosen values, those qualities of being that fuel meaning. Steve shares fascinating research results like how ACT techniques decreased typing errors on a clerical test or showed that positive affirmations actually increase negative emotion. And he weaves them with stories of clients and colleagues as well as his own riveting story of healing himself of a severe panic disorder, which is how the idea of psychological flexibility was born. A Liberated Mind is a powerful and important book about a new form of psychology, destined to become a modern classic of narrative psychology on par with Daring Greatly and Rising Strong by Brene Brown, or Carol Dweck’s Mindset.

Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) is among the most remarkable developments in contemporary psychotherapy. This second edition of the pioneering ACT skills-training manual for clinicians provides a comprehensive update—essential for both experienced practitioners and those new to using ACT and its applications. ACT is a proven-effective treatment for numerous mental health issues, including depression, anxiety, stress, addictions, eating disorders, schizophrenia, borderline personality disorder, and more. With important revisions based on new developments in contextual behavioral science, Learning ACT, Second Edition includes up-to-date exercises and references, as well as material on traditional, evidence-based behavioral techniques for use within the ACT framework. In this fully revised and updated edition of Learning ACT, you’ll find workbook-format exercises to help you understand and take advantage of ACT’s unique six process model—both as a tool for diagnosis and case conceptualization, and as a basis for structuring treatments for clients. You’ll also find up-to-the-minute information on process coaching, new experiential exercises, an increased focus on functional analysis, and downloadable extras that include role-played examples of the core ACT processes in action. By practicing the exercises in this workbook, you’ll learn how this powerful modality can improve clients’ psychological flexibility and help them to live better lives. Whether you’re a clinician looking for in-depth training and better treatment outcomes for individual clients, a student seeking a better understanding of this powerful modality, or anyone interested in contextual behavioral science, this second edition provides a comprehensive revision to an important ACT resource.

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is a new approach to psychotherapy that rethinks even the most basic assumptions of mental well-being. Starting with the assumption that the normal condition of human existence is suffering and struggle, ACT works by first encouraging individuals to accept their lives as they are in the here and now.

A groundbreaking, comprehensive program for designing effective and socially equitable groups of all sizes—from businesses and social justice groups to global organizations. Whether you work in business or schools, volunteer in neighborhoods or church organizations, or are involved in social justice and activism, you understand the enormous power of groups to enact powerful and lasting change in the world. But how exactly do you design, build, and sustain effective groups? Based on the work of Nobel Prize winning economist Elinor Ostrom and grounded in contextual behavioral science, evolutionary science, and acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), Prosocial presents a practical, step-by-step approach to help you energize and strengthen your business or organization. Using the Prosocial model, you’ll learn to design groups that are more harmonious, have better member or employee retention, have better relationships with other groups or business partners, and have more success and longevity. Most importantly, you’ll learn to target the characteristics that foster cooperation and collaboration—key ingredients for any effective group.

An innovative and effective approach to organizational behavioral management Despite more than 40 years of empirical and conceptual research, the contribution of behavior analysis to the world of business remains relatively small and organizational behavior management gets little attention in both the academic and professional communities. Acceptance and Mindfulness at Work presents behavioral analysis of human language that’s ready to use, with applied extensions proven to have a significant impact in organizational settings. The leading experts in the field examine how these ongoing developments can help broaden the exploration of the psychological issues relevant to organizational behavioral management (OBM) in the workplace. Acceptance and Mindfulness at Work presents conceptual and empirical articles, and reviews of working examples of Relational Frame Theory (RFT) and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) applied to organizational behavior management. The book examines goal setting, feedback, task descriptions, and workers’ ability to learn as examples of how to affect positive change in organizations through increased productivity and improved quality of life in the workplace. The possibilities presented by RTF can lead to advancements in employee safety and training, stress and health management, employee evaluation, managing absenteeism, tardiness, and turnover, and self-management. Acceptance and Mindfulness at Work examines: cognition in OBM industrial/organization (I/O) psychology how interventions using ACT have increased psychological flexibility rule-following feedback task performance feedback programmed schedules of reinforcement goal setting, goal statements, and goal-directed behavior how psychological flexibility and job control can predict learning, job performance, and mental health and much more Acceptance and Mindfulness at Work is a vital professional resource for organization development practitioners and human resource managers.

Wilson and Dufrene help readers foster the flexibility they need to keep from succumbing to the avoidable forces of anxiety, and open themselves to the often uncomfortable complexities and possibilities of life.

The Canonical Papers of Steven C. Hayes is a compilation of his most pivotal articles written from 1982-2012. Through these selected papers, Hayes again revisits the theoretical struggles between behavioral and cognitive-behavior theories, taking us from the 1980s into present day, discussing the breakthroughs and follies. Using this as a focus point, he discusses the tradition of behavior analysis and its difficulties in addressing human language and cognition. Moving forward into the 90s, he chronicles the changes in a behavioral approach that emerge from a contextual perspective on human cognition, and lays out the foundation for a contextual behavioral science approach that he argues is more likely to lead to an understanding of human action and an alleviation of human suffering. Although the articles have previously been published, they have been edited and compiled ensure this branch of research is clear to the modern audience. The compilation was chosen by Dr. Hayes to enhance his vision for a functional contextual approach to complex human behavior.