Brief Interventions for Radical Change: Principles and Practice of Focused Acceptance and Commitment Therapy

by Kirk D. Strosahl PhD, Patricia J. Robinson PhD, Thomas Gustavsson MSc

Overview

As a mental health professional, you know it’s a real challenge to help clients develop the psychological skills they need to live a vital life. This is especially true when you are working with time constraints or in settings where contacts with the client will be brief. Brief Interventions for Radical Change is a powerful resource for any clinician working with clients who are struggling with mental health, substance abuse, or life adjustment issues. If you are searching for a more focused therapeutic approach that requires fewer follow-up visits with clients, or if you are simply looking for a way to make the most of each session, this is your guide.

In this book, you’ll find a ready-to-use collection of brief assessment and case-formulation tools, as well as many brief intervention strategies based in focused acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT). These tools and strategies can be used to help your clients stop using unworkable behaviors, and instead engage in committed, values-based actions to change their lives for the better.

The book includes a practical approach to understanding how clients get stuck, focusing questions to help clients redefine their problem, and tools to increase motivation for change. In addition, you will learn methods for rapidly constructing effective treatment plans and effective interventions for promoting acceptance, present-moment awareness, and contact with personal values.

With this book, you will easily integrate important mindfulness, acceptance, and values-based therapeutic work in their interactions with clients suffering from depression, anxiety, or any other mental health problem.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781608823451
Publisher:	New Harbinger Publications
Publication date:	10/01/2012
Pages:	296
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Kirk D. Strosahl, PhD, is cofounder of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), a cognitive behavioral approach that has gained widespread adoption in the mental health and substance abuse communities. He is coauthor of Brief Interventions for Radical Change and In This Moment. Strosahl provides training and consultation services for Mountainview Consulting Group, Inc. He is a pioneer in the movement to bring behavioral health services into primary care.


Patricia J. Robinson, PhD, is director of training and program evaluation at Mountainview Consulting Group, Inc., a firm that assists health care systems with integrating behavioral health services into primary care settings. She is coauthor of Real Behavior Change in Primary Care and The Mindfulness and Acceptance Workbook for Depression. After exploring primary care psychology as a researcher, she devoted her efforts to its dissemination in rural America, urban public health departments, and military medical treatment facilities.

Thomas Gustavsson, MSc, is a licensed psychologist and cofounder of Psykologpartners, a company providing residential psychology and psychiatry services for self-harming clients in Scandinavia.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

Part 1 Principles of Brief Intervention

1 A Brief Review of Brief Therapy 11

2 How People Get Stuck 27

3 The Process of Radical Change 49

Part 2 Practice Tools and Methods for Brief, Focused Interventions

4 Focused Interviewing 69

5 Strategies and Tools for Increasing Motivation 85

6 Promoting Radical Change 105

Part 3 Case Examples

7 Big Like Swallow: FACT with a Sexually Abused Child 129

8 Lost in Space: FACT with a Poly-Substance-Abusing Adult 155

9 Playing It Safe: FACT with an Adult Survivor of Sexual Abuse 179

10 Disconnected and Demoralized: FACT with a Depressed Elderly Woman 203

Part 4 FACT with Couples and Groups

11 Until Death Do Us Part: Conducting FACT with Couples 229

12 The More the Merrier: Conducting FACT in Groups and Classes 247

Appendix: Interview, Case Formulation, and Assessment Tools 265

References 273

Index 279

Interviews

Kirk Strosahl and Patricia Robinson live in Zillah, WA. Thomas Gustavsson lives in Rydeback, Sweden.

Editorial Reviews

This book is a must-read not only for ACT therapists with an interest in brief therapy, but for any ACT therapist who wants to improve their efficiency and effectiveness with the model. Low on theory and high on practicality, this book is choc-a-bloc full of new tools and techniques for brief but powerful ACT interventions. You’ll be amazed at how simple and easy it makes the trickier aspects of ACT, such as self-as-context and creative hopelessness. If you want to get better results in less time with more clients, then you need to read this book right now!”

—Russ Harris, author of The Happiness Trap

“If you are looking for a rapid way to help people reduce their suffering and make positive changes, this book can show you the way. The four questions Strosahl, Robinson, and Gustavsson provide can give you a quick handle both on what's going on with clients and on how to help them change. A nice variation on the ACT method with some new insights and additions to make it compatible with clients' and third-party payers' demands for efficient and effective treatment.”

—Bill O'Hanlon, author of Change 101, A Brief Guide to Brief Therapy, and The Change Your Life Book

“Brief therapy alert: This book is valuable reading for anyone interested in time-sensitive ‘brief’ therapy. It provides theory, methodology, research evidence, and numerous clinical examples for how to help clients rapidly make significant changes. It is also an excellent introduction to the larger field of acceptance and commitment therapy, offering concepts and techniques that clinicians can adapt to their own practices. Strongly recommended!”

—Michael F. Hoyt, PhD, author of Brief Psychotherapies and Interviews with Brief Therapy

“This book has the wrong title. It should be: Everything You Need to Know Stated Clearly, Free of Jargon and Hype that Will Enable You to Help a Broad and Diverse Range of Clients Effectively and Efficiently. On second thought, Brief Interventions for Radical Change, like the book, is more to the point.”

—Scott D. Miller, PhD, director at the International Center for Clinical Excellence, Cummings professor of behavioral health at Arizona State University, and author of The Heart and Soul of Change

“Strosahl, Gustavsson, and Robinson have written an inspiring book for all clinicians to read and to use in their daily practice. The genius of focused acceptance and commitment therapy is that it not only includes new insights, but it also dispels the myths about brief interventions. This book shows that a focused approach is exactly what many people need to help them recapture a sense of being fully alive.”

—Mark Williams, professor of clinical psychology at the University of Oxford, and coauthor of The Mindful Way Through Depression

“Brief Interventions for Radical Change is an excellent resource for primary care clinicians wanting to make efficient use of their time with patients. It’s a practical guide for a patient-centered, functional approach, and provides case examples with individuals, couples, and groups.”

—Debra A. Gould, MD, MPH, family physician and coauthor of Real Behavior Change in Primary Care, Improving Patient Outcomes and Increasing Job Satisfaction

From the Publisher