ABSTRACT
Traditionally, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) involved only cognitive and behavioral therapy techniques, but in recent years, a third wave has developed, including therapies such as acceptance and commitment therapy. This chapter reviews the growing research about acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) and the third wave of CBT. Enter Steve Hayes, professor of psychology at the University of Nevada, Reno, and a few other colleagues such as Neil Jacobson, Andrew Christensen, and Marcia Linehan, who have brought a focus on acceptance into the center of behavioral treatment. In sum, ACT expands the range of CBT to include interventions that often are viewed as part of mindfulness, existential, or humanistic treatments. Hayes describes ACT as part of the CBT/BT tradition. He insists that it is antimechanistic, however, and overlaps with the depth-oriented clinical sensibilities of the other humanistic and psychodynamic traditions. Hayes points to numerous studies that have shown that ACT produces consistently positive gains across a broad range of problems.
