ABSTRACT
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is a cognitive behavioural therapy that aims to promote quality of life, functioning and personal effectiveness. The ACT model integrates processes of change to increase psychological flexibility. Studies of ACT have demonstrated that changes in psychological flexibility during therapy relate to improvements in outcome. This work has been extended to evaluations of interventions which help people with psychosis. ACT was first developed in the early 1980s, emerging out of clinical behaviour analysis, a radical behavioural approach to therapy. The radical behavioural background to ACT is distinctive and important. The ACT therapist focuses on language processes, helping the client to notice and respond flexibly to both their experiences and how their mind appraises them. The ACT therapeutic relationship is characterised by warmth, acceptance and genuineness. There are several adaptations that can make ACT an engaging approach for people with psychosis.
