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Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT): Contextual Therapy in the Approach to Psychosis

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Psychological Interventions for Psychosis

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Abstract

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT; Hayes SC, Strosahl KD, Wilson KG, Acceptance and commitment therapy: An experiential approach to behavior change. Guilford Press, New York, 1999; Wilson KG, Luciano C, Terapia de aceptación y compromiso. Un tratamiento conductual orientado a los valores. Pirámide, Madrid, 2002), or contextual therapy, is the main representative of the so-called contextual therapies due to its philosophical, theoretical, and empirical anchorage. As an overarching model of psychopathology and intervention tied to basic behavioral principles and processes, ACT techniques are linked to theoretical and empirical knowledge of complex human behavior. Understanding psychopathology as a transdiagnostic process of psychological inflexibility, ACT is focused on altering inflexible behavioral patterns because of their impact on the client’s meaningful and valued life domains, and the highly emotional cost that it derived. This chapter reviews the conceptual approach for psychological inflexibility in psychosis and its application. Through the core clinical strategies of intervention, change mechanisms are explored towards a new, generalized repertoire of psychological flexibility. The chapter presents the refinement of contextual therapy by incorporating the basic-applied research of the last decade.

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Clinical cases presented in this chapter do not include real names or personal information of real persons.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Universidad Nebrija, Madrid Institute of Contextual Psychology (MICPSY), Madrid, Spain

    Bárbara Gil-Luciano

  2. Fundación Universitaria Konrad-Lorenz, Bogotá, Colombia

    Francisco J. Ruiz

  3. Universidad de Almería, Madrid Institute of Contextual Psychology (MICPSY), Madrid, Spain

    Carmen Luciano

Authors
  1. Bárbara Gil-Luciano
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  2. Francisco J. Ruiz
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  3. Carmen Luciano
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Bárbara Gil-Luciano .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Hospital Universitario de Gran Canaria Dr. Negrín, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Las Palmas, Spain

    Juan Antonio Díaz-Garrido

  2. Hospital Universitario de Canarias, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Sta. Cruz Tenerife, Spain

    Raquel Zúñiga

  3. Hospital Universitario de Gran Canaria Dr. Negrín, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Las Palmas, Spain

    Horus Laffite

  4. Faculty of Psychology and Public Health, La Trobe University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

    Eric Morris

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Gil-Luciano, B., Ruiz, F.J., Luciano, C. (2023). Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT): Contextual Therapy in the Approach to Psychosis. In: Díaz-Garrido, J.A., Zúñiga, R., Laffite, H., Morris, E. (eds) Psychological Interventions for Psychosis. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-27003-1_12

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