Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Acceptance-Based Behavioral Therapy For Generalized Anxiety Disorder
Acceptance-Based Behavioral Therapy For Generalized Anxiety Disorder
Acceptance-Based Behavioral Therapy For Generalized Anxiety Disorder
Mindfulness therapies?
Avoiding avoidance
behaviors?
Dialectical Behavior
Therapy (DBT)?
Acceptance-Based Behavioral
Therapy for Generalized Anxiety
Disorder
By: Ganit Gray & Abbey Gloyd
Let’s start with GAD
diagnostic criteria:
Generalized Anxiety Disorder 300.02 (F41.1)
B. The individual
finds it difficult to
control the worry.
Generalized Anxiety Disorder 300.02 (F41.1)
1. Acceptance
2. Cognitive defusion
3. Being present
4. Self as context
5. Values
6. Committed action
1. Acceptance
Avoiding avoidance.
● Labeling thoughts
● “Watching” thoughts dispassionately
● Repeating thoughts until their meaning/power reduces
3. Being Present
Experiencing events in the moment, as they are, and
describing rather than predicting.
4. Self as Context
Use exercises to adopt a spiritual, transcendent locus of
perspective:
1. Mindfulness exercises,
2. metaphors, and
3. experiential processes
5. Values
Encouraging clients to first identify their core values, and
then to think about what it would mean to live a life
motivated by those values, rather than on avoidance
behaviors.
6. Committed Action
Take what was discussed in #5 and make it happen.
Assignments
● Review psychoeducational materials
● Self-monitoring forms
● Practice mindfulness daily
○ Formal
○ Informal
● Engage in valuable actions
Research Support
SAMHSA National Registry of Evidence-based Programs and Practices: “ACT is
evidence based” (2011)
● Peer-reviewed research
❖ Discussion
https://www.guilford.com/companion-site/The-Mindful-Way-through-Anxiety/9781606234648#stream
References
Association for Contextual Behavioral Science (Ed.). (2011, July 6). 'ACT is evidence-Based' says U.S. government
agency. Retrieved January 27, 2019, from
https://contextualscience.org/news/act_is_evidencebased_says_us_government_agency
Barlow, D. H. (2014). Clinical handbook of psychological disorders: a step-by-step treatment manual. Fifth edition.
New York: The Guilford Press.
Guilford Press. (2016). Supplemental Materials for the mindful way through anxiety [Audio files].
Retrieved from https://www.guilford.com/companion-site/The-Mindful-Way-through-Anxiety/
9781606234648#stream
Hofmann, S. G., & Asmundson, G. J. G. (2008). Acceptance and mindfulness-based therapy: New wave or old hat?
Clinical Psychology Review, 28(1), 1–16. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2007.09.003
Noel, N., & Imel, Z. (n.d.). Acceptance and commitment therapy for mixed anxiety disorders | Society for Clinical
Psychology. Retrieved January 27, 2019, from
http://www.div12.org/treatment/acceptance-and-commitment-therapy-for-mixed-anxiety-disorders/