Steven Hayes, Ph.D. on Accetance and Committment Therapy

Mental Help Net (www.mentalhelp.net) presents the Wise Counsel Podcast (wisecounsel.mentalhelp.net), hosted by David Van Nuys, Ph.D. "Steven C. Hayes, Ph.D. on Acceptance and Committment Therapy", posted March 21, 2007. Dr. Steven C. Hayes' Acceptance and Committment Therapy (ACT) is a relatively new variety of psychotherapy that puts cognitive behavioral techniques into the service of helping people excape their symbolic prisons by teaching them how to become more conscious of and less bought into and embedded in their symbolic prisons. When painful experience is not avoided anymore people become more able to connect with what they value and then to act (commit) to actions that are consistant with their values (rather than consistant with avoiding what they fear). Though experiential in orientation and practice, ACT is firmly based in science, and is supported by multiple clinical trials that provide evidence for its' efficacy.