Drop the Struggle and Embrace Your Emotions

a post by Avigail Lev for the World of Psychology blog



Society tries to convince us that we can control our internal experiences. We constantly hear messages like “Don’t worry about it. Relax. Calm down.”

That’s dead wrong. Just hearing the words “Don’t worry” can make us anxious.

Telling yourself “Don’t worry” isn’t much different. The more often we think, “Don’t feel anxious you can’t feel anxious don’t be depressed don’t be sad you shouldn’t be upset” the more anxious, depressed, sad and upset we’ll become.

Let’s take a metaphor from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, developed by Hayes and Masuda, as an example of how this process works. Imagine that you’re hooked up to a very sensitive polygraph machine. This polygraph machine can pick up the slightest physiological changes that occur in your body, including any changes in heartbeat, pulse, muscle tension, sweat, or any type of minor arousal.

Now suppose I say, “Whatever you do, don’t get anxious while you’re hooked up to this highly sensitive device!”

What do you imagine might happen?

You guessed it. You’d start getting anxious.

Continue reading

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The value of psychological flexibility: Examining psychological mechanisms underpinning a cognitive behavioural therapy intervention for burnout

Joda Lloyd and Frank W. Bond (Goldsmiths, University of London, UK) and Paul E. Flaxman (City University, London, UK) published in Work & Stress: An International Journal of Work, Health & Organisations Volume 27 Issue 2 (2013)

Abstract

Little is known of the mechanisms by which interventions for burnout work.

Employees of a UK government department were randomly assigned to either a worksite group-based CBT intervention called Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT; n=43), which aimed to increase participants’ psychological flexibility, or a waiting list control group (n=57).

The ACT group received three half-day sessions of training spread over two and a half months. Data were collected at baseline (T1), at the beginning of the second (T2) and third (T3) workshops, and at six months’ follow up (T4).

Consistent with ACT theory, analyses revealed that, in comparison to the control group, a significant increase in psychological flexibility from T2 to T3 in the ACT group mediated the subsequent T2 to T4 decrease in emotional exhaustion in that group.

Consistent with a theory of emotional burnout development, this significant decrease in emotional exhaustion from T2 to T4 in the ACT group appeared to prevent the significant T3 to T4 increase in depersonalization seen in the control group. Strain also decreased from T2 to T3 in the ACT group only, but no mediator of that improvement was identified.

Implications for theory and practice in the fields of ACT and emotional burnout are discussed.

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Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) as a career counselling strategy

an article by P. Nancey Hoare, Peter McIlveen and Nadine Hamilton (University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, Australia) published in International Journal for Educational and Vocational Guidance Volume 12 Issue 3 (October 2012)

Abstract

Acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) has potential to contribute to career counselling. In this paper, the theoretical tenets of ACT and a selection of its counselling techniques are over-viewed along with a descriptive case vignette.

There is limited empirical research into ACT’s application in career counselling. Accordingly, a research agenda is presented for the aim of integrating ACT with career counselling.

This agenda includes suggestions for addressing conceptual convergence, practitioners’ perspectives, counselling processes, measurement of impact, and applications in counselling.

Hazel’s comment:
ACT is often used in mental health counselling to get people to understand that what has happened to them in life has happened to them not been caused by them being a bad person. I have not previously heard of this being used in career counselling.
I learn something new every day in the writing of this blog!

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