Just a moment...
The ACT matrix works because it incorporates many of ACT’s core processes in a simple yet powerful way:
- Defusion - by writing down your thoughts, you notice them as thoughts, rather than allowing them to become unquestioned lenses through which you see the world.
- Values - by writing out what is important to you, you can take steps to orient toward it
Casey Rosengren • How to Break the Anxiety- Fear-Avoidance Cycle
All of the ACT acceptance methods are premised on three underlying principles: 1. Avoidance causes pain.
Steven Hayes • A Liberated Mind: The essential guide to ACT
Reframing is a fundamental technique in modern CBT (cognitive behaviour therapy) but its roots are older: as Marcus Aurelius put it, ‘Reject your sense of injury and the injury itself disappears’.5
Alison Jones • Exploratory Writing: Everyday magic for life and work
But suppose that STRUGGLE against your “bad” thoughts and feelings is actually making your life worse? In ACT we have a saying for this: “The solution is the problem!”
Russ Harris • The Happiness Trap
In contrast, my approach is based on the belief that people not only come into therapy with a wish to change and master their pathogenic beliefs but even have an unconscious strategy about how to do so.