A CBT Practitioner's Guide to ACT: How to Bridge the Gap Between Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy 1st Edition

This book is full of wonderful exercises and therapeutic metaphors. The book is well worth the section on relational-frame theory (RFT) alone. It was also very instrumental in helping me to move my dissertation along to a satisfying conclusion. Highly recommended!

I don't know if I've ever reviewed a product on Amazon, however this is the best book on ACT I've read. I've already got a base of ACT training and have read several other books, but this is such a helpful addition with lots of new ways of seeing and explaining the constructs of ACT. Love the way it's written. Highly recommend.

As a practitioner using classic CBT for years this text is indispensable for moving into the ACT modality. While I have been primarily using ACT now for approximately 4 years, this answers specific questions I still had. I highly recommend this to any CBT practioner who wishes to expand their skill set.

I will use this book in my work. I have only read through it quickly so far, but liked what I saw. I have always been a CBT practitioner, and was intrigued by the combination of ACT and CBT.

Most clinicians and researchers writing books underestimate the scope of their audience. Reading the title of this book, you would think it's only relevant to you if you are a practitioner or if you are unsure whether mindfulness and acceptance based treatments are going to improve the welfare of your clients. Ignore the title of this book. If you are in any helping profession, this book is going to be useful for you. If you want to improve your own life, this book is going to be far more useful than the vast majority of self-help books on the market. If you are looking to help a friend, family member, or romantic partner, this book offers insights for how to intervene. If you are a scientist and want to better understand the notions of mindfulness, acceptance, and living in a way aligned with important values, this book is going to open up new insights. Once again, ignore the title of this book and just start reading.This book provides one of the clearest, succinct explanations of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). More importantly, every chapter is filled with ready-to-use exercises with clients. This includes descriptions of how to explain these exercises and hand-outs that you can give to people. After any chapter, you will be ready to infuse your clinical work with new strategies and techniques. If you are interested in the larger picture of what it means to be a therapist with an orientation toward acceptance and mindfulness, then this book offers answers.One of the criticisms of modern books that focus on mindfulness is that it has all been said before (see any entry on Buddhism). This criticism cannot be levied against this book. There are original ideas, original exercises, and an original commentary of the shared space between cognitive-behavioral treatments and mindfulness based treatments.Here you can find the art and science of how to create a life that is more invigorating and meaningful. It should be on the shelves of every practitioner and every person trying to add additional layers of meaning to their own lives.

Just wanted to give a big thumbs up to "A CBT Practitioner's Guide To ACT" by Joe Ciarrochi and Ann Bailey. They have done a superb job of building bridges between ACT and CBT, honoring and appreciating both models, and looking openly and honestly at areas of overlap and areas of differences, without judging either one as "better" or "superior" to the other. They also show how you can use ACT techniques to enhance your CBT while staying within that model, or, if you choose to move from the CBT model to the ACT model, how you can bring most of CBT with you, (provided you tweak certain parts of it, and make the philosophical shift from mechanism to contextualism). Of particular interest to me was the section on differences and similarities in exposure, as done in each model. Another really fascinating section of the book looks at where RFT would predict cognitive challenging to be effective, and where RFT predicts it would be ineffective. Also some great stuff in here tying ACT with emotional intelligence, and some truly excellent handouts and worksheets for clients. And as if all that wans't enough, there are stacks of new metaphors and techniques and worksheets, and plenty of humor and funny cartoons thrown in. Also some very accessible writing about RFT, which is a huge achievement in and of itself. I went to bed at 11pm last night intending to read the opening chapter, and found myself still reading away at 3 am. I'm knackered, but it was well worth it. An absolutely essential read for anyone with one foot in each camp, or for those eager to learn more about similarities and differences between these two powerful and effective models.