Congratulations Professor Pakenham

[et_pb_section bb_built="1" admin_label="Section" fullwidth="on" specialty="off" transparent_background="off" background_color="#2ea3f2" allow_player_pause="off" inner_shadow="off" parallax="off" parallax_method="off" padding_mobile="off" make_fullwidth="off" use_custom_width="off" width_unit="on" make_equal="off" use_custom_gutter="off"][et_pb_fullwidth_header admin_label="Fullwidth Header" title="Caring for Self to Care for Others: An Award Winning Program" background_layout="dark" text_orientation="center" header_fullscreen="off" header_scroll_down="off" parallax="off" parallax_method="off" content_orientation="center" image_orientation="center" custom_button_one="off" button_one_letter_spacing="0" button_one_use_icon="default" button_one_icon_placement="right" button_one_on_hover="on" button_one_letter_spacing_hover="0" custom_button_two="off" button_two_letter_spacing="0" button_two_use_icon="default" button_two_icon_placement="right" button_two_on_hover="on" button_two_letter_spacing_hover="0" /][/et_pb_section][et_pb_section bb_built="1" admin_label="section"][et_pb_row admin_label="Row"][et_pb_column type="2_3"][et_pb_image admin_label="Image" src="https://www.brisbaneactcentre.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/DSF0118.jpg" show_in_lightbox="off" url_new_window="off" animation="left" sticky="off" align="center" max_width="800px" force_fullwidth="off" always_center_on_mobile="on" use_border_color="off" border_color="#ffffff" border_style="solid" use_overlay="off" /][et_pb_text admin_label="Text" background_layout="light" text_orientation="left" use_border_color="off" border_color="#ffffff" border_style="solid"]

We’re pleased to congratulate friend of the Brisbane ACT Centre, Professor Kenneth Pakenham on receiving one of the 2016 Australian Awards for University Teaching! These national awards recognise outstanding contributions to student learning. Professor Pakenham received his citation for ‘Caring for Self to Care for Others’, for integrating self-care skills into the UQ psychology program.

Professor Pakenham is an accomplished researcher in the ACT community and used his expertise to introduce ACT training into of the largest university clinical psychology programs in Australia. The program Professor Pakenham introduced trained students in evidence based therapy, particularly in self care. Focusing on self care teaches students to build resilience and handle the significant emotional load that their profession carries.

The self care training integrated into the UQ Psychology program demonstrated effectiveness in reducing student’s distress while improving their self compassion and therapy skills. Professor Pakenham’s data even shows that these skills persist for the long term.

ACT therapists believe it’s important to practice what they preach, and to use their skills in their own lives and work. Professor Pakenham is a terrific example of this principle in action, he used his skills to sensitively introduce a program that has had fantastic outcomes for the students involved. ACT skills helped Professor Pakenham to integrate this program, and learning ACT skills helped participants to become more resilient, self compassionate and better therapists. Learning to care for yourself is a valuable skill not just for burgeoning psychology professionals but everyone else too, if you'd like to learn more about ACT get in touch with our friendly staff at the Brisbane ACT Centre.

[/et_pb_text][/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type="1_3"][et_pb_team_member admin_label="Person" image_url="https://www.brisbaneactcentre.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/logo_brisbane_act_centre.jpg" animation="left" background_layout="light" use_border_color="off" border_color="#ffffff" border_style="solid" /][et_pb_signup admin_label="Signup" provider="mailchimp" mailchimp_list="82954980b2" aweber_list="none" title="Receive Blog Updates To Your Inbox" button_text="Sign up Now" use_background_color="on" background_color="#2EA3F2" background_layout="dark" text_orientation="left" use_focus_border_color="off" use_border_color="off" border_color="#ffffff" border_style="solid" custom_button="off" button_letter_spacing="0" button_use_icon="default" button_icon_placement="right" button_on_hover="on" button_letter_spacing_hover="0" /][et_pb_sidebar admin_label="Sidebar" orientation="right" area="sidebar-1" background_layout="light" remove_border="off" /][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section][et_pb_section bb_built="1" admin_label="Section" fullwidth="off" specialty="off" transparent_background="off" background_color="#2ea3f2" allow_player_pause="off" inner_shadow="off" parallax="off" parallax_method="off" padding_mobile="off" make_fullwidth="off" use_custom_width="off" width_unit="on" make_equal="off" use_custom_gutter="off"][et_pb_row admin_label="Row"][et_pb_column type="4_4"][et_pb_cta admin_label="Call To Action" title="Want to Learn More?" button_url="https://www.brisbaneactcentre.com.au/contact/" url_new_window="off" button_text="Get in Touch" use_background_color="on" background_color="#2EA3F2" background_layout="dark" text_orientation="center" use_border_color="off" border_color="#ffffff" border_style="solid" custom_button="off" button_letter_spacing="0" button_use_icon="default" button_icon_placement="right" button_on_hover="on" button_letter_spacing_hover="0"]

Book an Appointment with One of Our Expert Brisbane Psychologists or Therapists.

[/et_pb_cta][/et_pb_column][/et_pb_row][/et_pb_section]

How to Lose Weight with ACT

By Dr. Nga Tran

You may be one in two Australians at any one time trying to lose weight.  Whether it’s due to a recent health scare, a hard word from your doctor, or realising you can’t do something that really matters to you.  Yet despite shows like “The Biggest Loser”, the evidence of success for people losing a meaningful amount of weight and keeping it off in the long term is very low.

You know this cycle only too well: A certain event spurs you into action; you get motivated and set a plan; you may be able to stick to it for a while; sooner or later, cravings kick in, and you start eating a few of the things you shouldn’t eat, or eat more than you intend to.  You are a rational, thinking, caring human being, and in many ways this behaviour actually makes sense – eating brings pleasure and/or eliminates unpleasant states such as cravings or boredom.

We all know cues are very powerful – if a song can bring back a memory of that first kiss at 16, think of all the associations that may be present with food.  The smell of coffee may bring craving for cake, driving a certain route we go past a particular fast food stop, watching TV may be paired with a packet of chips.  This all works at a very automatic level in your brain, and is much more powerful in influencing your behaviour than menu plans or the future risk of diabetes.

So over and over again, you (like most of us) act automatically triggered by these food cues to reduce cravings, and the longer term consequences fade out your consciousness at the moment of choosing.  And afterwards, you beat yourself up and feel guilty or hopeless.  These very emotions are unpleasant and can again be immediately diminished by food, and the vicious cycle keeps going.

Traditional weigh loss strategies teach you about nutrition, about counting calories, about distraction techniques to fight urges, and get you to keep a diary of what you eat and your weight.  In basic terms, they teach you to set specific goals and to fight your cravings and urges.  Yet even with the best programmes and intensive support, the rate of people losing a meaningful amount of weight and keeping it off is very low.

A new study shows that a different strategy called Acceptance Based Treatment achieves much higher success rates.  This study was very well designed and involved nearly 200 people.  The Acceptance Based Treatment lost 13.3% of initial weight at 1 year, compared to the best existing treatment achieving 9.8%.  This is among the largest ever success in behavioural treatment for weight loss without using an aggressive diet regime or medications (most of which have multiple harmful effects and short lasting results).

What is different about Acceptance Based Treatment?  It teaches you accept physical discomfort, such as hunger and craving, without needing to get rid of it with food.  It also teaches you to accept the reduction in pleasure associated with eating.  So rather than a battle between you and your urges, you learn to notice them come and go.  And it teaches you to connect to the values that are important to you about losing weight, rather than just focussing on the goal of losing weight in and of itself.

So, for example, if losing weight means you can run around and play sport with your children/friends, then connecting with this value enables you to be more willing ride out the discomfort.  This actually leads to you choosing differently, over and over again, and gradually form new habits and associations with food.  The reward of doing something that is in line with what you care about is an intrinsic motivator that you can always access.  You learn to be kinder and more forgiving of yourself so are less likely to beat yourself up and more able to stay on track.

These are exactly the principles and techniques we use in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy at the Brisbane ACT Centre every day with our clients.  The same principles can be applied to problems with alcohol, cigarettes, gambling, shopping, overworking.  In the same way, we help clients be more willing to tolerate anxiety, depression, traumatic memories, voices, or whatever distressing internal experiences, in the service of living their lives in a way that is really meaningful to them.

References:

Acceptance-based versus standard behavioral treatment for obesity: Results from the mind your health randomized controlled trial. Foreman, E et al, Obesity 2016

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/oby.21601/full

Advancing the revolution in the behavioral treatment of obesity. Thomas A. Wadden, Robert I. Berkowitz, Obesity Editorial 2016.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/oby.21641/full

New therapeutic treatment helps people lose more weight and keep it off – Study shows clear gains from weight-loss treatment aimed at setting goals based on personal life values. Chelsea Clark, The Obesity Society.

http://www.obesity.org/obesity/news/press-releases/new-therapeutic-treatment-helps-people-lost-more-weight-and-keep-it-off

Self-Regulation Helps Obese, Overweight Patients Shed Pounds. Acceptance-based weight loss treatment emphasizes self-appointed goals.

http://www.medpagetoday.com/endocrinology/obesity/60585

The Power of Self-Compassion

By Bernadette Devenish

We would never criticise and judge our loved ones or friends as harshly as we do ourselves. Self-compassion is something we can give ourselves when we fail and struggle, when we feel ashamed and disappointed. Self-compassion helps us to become mindful of our humanness. It is not easy to be a human, we all struggle, we all suffer and we all make mistakes at times. As the great R.E.M. song says – ‘Everybody Hurts Sometime’.

All humans experience disappointment, relationship difficulties, frustration, anxiety, rejection, illness, anger, fear, loss, guilt, and self-doubt. Giving as much compassion to ourselves as we would to a friend dealing with similar struggles helps us to lighten up on ourselves, reducing our tendency for perfection and self-imposed high standards. We expect so much of ourselves and our minds beat us up when we fall short of our unrealistic expectations. Giving ourselves compassion allows us to acknowledge with kindness that we are suffering.

Self-compassion brings us closer to others during difficult times, reducing feelings of isolation. Self-compassion and mindfulness help us to observe and notice ourselves and our actions with clarity and honest openness. Comforting ourselves as we struggle with difficult experiences enhances our relationships by helping us to face our faults, making it more likely that we will admit to and repair our mistakes. Self-compassion and mindfulness helps to interrupt patterns of negative automatic emotional reactions.

Awareness that we are suffering in this moment and allowing kindness toward our own suffering helps us to bounce back from inevitable difficult and challenging human experiences.  Self-compassion also helps us to connect with others with the knowledge that we all suffer and we all make mistakes. Paying attention to our moment to moment internal and external experiences without judgment using mindfulness and self-compassion builds our flexibility, adaptability and tolerance to the inevitable challenges of being a human and in relationship with others.

Walk Slowly ~ Danna Faulds…

It only takes a reminder to breathe,
a moment to be still, and just like that,
something in me settles, softens, makes
space for imperfection. The harsh voice
of judgment drops to a whisper and I
remember again that life isn’t a relay
race; that we will all cross the finish
line; that waking up to life is what we
were born for. As many times as I
forget, catch myself charging forward
without even knowing where I’m going,
that many times I can make the choice
to stop, to breathe, and be, and walk
slowly into the mystery.

To learn more about how to bring mindfulness and self-compassion into your life contact the Brisbane ACT Centre in Milton www.brisbaneactcentre.com.au

References

Chapman. A. (2016). The mind as a powerful storyteller. Retrieved from http://www.nzherald.co.nz/wanganui-chronicle/midweek/news/article.cfm?c_id=1503658&objectid=11629686

Harris. R. (2016) How to develop self-compassion in just about anyone. Retrieved from eBook https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1ped_h4T7Q4WW10SDd0ZS1aRnM/view?pref=2&pli=1

Managing Anxiety with Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Mindfulness

By Bernadette Devenish

Modern humans have inherited genetics from their ancestors who learned over thousands of years how to survive in a dangerous world. Our modern world hardy resembles the life of our ancestors; however our minds do not know that. Our minds, similar to our ancestors, are still hardwired to keep us safe and threats as a result of modern living e.g. long work hours, deadlines, family and work stress, living close to others, traffic jams, and unrealistic time demands, evoke responses from our mind which are often subconscious and automatic.

These normal responses or flight fight stress responses are designed to pull us back or away from perceived danger to ensure our safety and survival. Take for example our automatic response when we leap away from a stick. Once we realise the object is a stick and not a snake, our mind and body settles and we carry on. Better safe than sorry is our minds approach. If the stick had turned out to be a snake, our minds automatic reaction would have kept us safe. Nothing is lost as far as our mind is concerned, to over-react and leap out of harms way. Our minds will always err on the side of caution and take the ‘better to be safe than sorry’ option in order to keep us safe.

The User’s Guide to the Human Mind – why our brains make us unhappy, anxious, and neurotic and what can we do about it” is written by Shawn Smith (2011) and is a useful self-help resource book that helps us to understand the processes of our mind. Shawn explains in easy to understand language how our minds work and why we are hard wired to react, particularly in times of stress, with behaviours cleverly designed to pull us back and away from perceived threats. We worry and become anxious, stressed, depressed, distracted and full of self-doubt for a reason – to ensure our safety and survival.

Our busy demanding lives pull us into a state of doing, rushing, and achieving with little time left for just being. Being with ourselves and fully present in this moment is practically impossible when we are constantly pushed for time, and feeling that we can never get everything done. Time for fun and adequate nutrition, exercise, and sleep are often sacrificed in our task saturated and fast paced lives. Living with this constant unrelenting stress day in day out, increases our vulnerability to physical and mental disease. Living at this rapid, constant pace can cause havoc with our peace of mind, health, and general feelings of contentment.  How then can we go with the flow of what has become the norm – busy demanding lives – and achieve a healthy balance toward vital, fulfilling, meaningful, purposeful, and satisfying lives?  More and more studies are showing that Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (or Training) (ACT) and mindfulness may be the answer, providing a vital link for us to maintain balance and stability while living under the constant pressure, stress, and demands of being a modern day human.

Minds are hardwired to keep us alive and safe, and any good mind that is doing its job would not allow us to move away from what is known and trusted.  Our mind keeps an eye out for us, always problem solving, and constantly churning out thoughts and stories which can trigger unhelpful thinking habits such as black and white and all or nothing thinking, worry, rumination, self-doubt, and procrastination.  The normal human mind is rarely in the present, tending to focus instead on problems, negatives, and things that are going wrong. Because negative experiences are more likely to threaten us than positive, there is an evolutionary reason for this natural tendency of the human mind. Minds focus on negatives, they worry, ruminate, dredge up memories and images from the past, linking these and our past mistakes to the present, predicting what could go wrong in an effort to keep us safe. Living in our busy, ever changing, modern demanding world sets us up for minds that can habitually use unhelpful thinking patterns, pulling our attention away from the here and now, robbing us of the opportunity to live a fully present and vital life.

Welcome to being a human, we all have minds that behave like this.  No human can escape the reality of experiencing pleasant and unpleasant thoughts and emotions, images and memories.  For example, if we feel joy and love then we are connected and attached to others. The risk of being connected to others is losing them which will involve the flip side of love and joy – sadness and grief. These are normal human emotions and we cannot have one without the other.  If we experience feelings of pride and mastery we would also have likely experienced emotions of fear, anxiety and self-doubt to get there. That’s the deal with being a human. We all have minds and they all come hardwired to experience thoughts, feelings, sensations, images and memories.  Some are pleasant, some are not, however, they are all normal human experiences designed to keep us safe.  Are you willing to have all of these normal human experiences?

Our minds can be tricky, frightening us and talking us out of doing things that we really want to do sometimes. Take for example speaking in front of a group of people. If we are not accustomed to speaking publically, our minds will likely throw up thoughts involving self-consciousness and self-doubt along with healthy doses of anxiety experienced in our body in the form of sweating, shaking, dry mouth, and pounding heart. Sound familiar? Your mind is just looking out for you, doing its job to ensure that you do not put yourself out in front of others, running the risk of being negatively evaluated and perhaps found wanting. Our minds cannot speak to us, they have only thoughts and feelings to send us messages and do their job – keep us safe. In the absence of words, minds have the normal human stress responses or fight flight responses to stop us in our tracks, ensuring that we remain quiet and not speak, reducing the threat of us being rejected by the group.  Changing our relationship to one of befriending and joining up with our thoughts and feelings as allies, accepting and allowing them to be just as they are without needing to judge them, push them away or running from and avoid them, stops our minds from pushing us around like this, dictating how we live our lives. Shifting our relationship with these normal human experiences helps us to see that our thoughts are just thoughts, and our feelings are just feelings. Thoughts and feelings cannot hurt us, and we do not have to believe everything that our minds tell us.  We do not have to buy into every thought and feeling that we experience.

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy or Training (ACT) and mindfulness help to change our relationship with normal challenging human thoughts, feelings, and experiences.  Promoting awareness of what our mind is up to, ACT and mindfulness skills build our ability to notice when our minds have pulled us away from the present moment.  ACT skills teach us how to notice, observe, and become curious of our internal and external experiences using a non-judgmental beginners mind. Taking this bigger picture perspective of our thoughts and feelings using ACT and mindfulness skills, helps to promote value based responds, breaking the habit of reacting unskilfully to the inevitable challenges of being a human.

Applying the six core principles of ACT to our daily lives has been shown to build psychological flexibility, helping us to adapt to the constant changes in our busy modern world. Mindfulness and ACT skills practiced regularly become habits which foster more helpful, workable, and skilful responses to our moment to moment experiences. Mindfulness and ACT skills build a sense of mastery and stability rather than living mindlessly, stuck in unhelpful thinking patterns.

Are you living the life that you want? Are difficult thoughts and feelings getting in the way of a vital, meaningful, fulfilling, and purposeful life? Do you want to know more about mindfulness and ACT skills that could change your life?  You may be eligible for a Federal Government rebate with a Mental Health Care Plan for visits to one of the skilled ACT Therapists working at the Brisbane ACT Centre at 7 Marie St in Milton. Visit the Brisbane ACT Centre website www.brisbaneactcentre.com.au  or phone 07 3193 1072 for more information.

Reference

Smith, S. T. (2011). The user’s guide to the human mind. Why our brains make us unhappy anxious, and neurotic and what can we do about it. Oakland, CA: New Harbinger Publications, Inc.

The Purple Vault

By Claire Welshe

A clear blue sky beamed through my window the day I learned that I would never again see purple rain, at least not in the flesh.  The flesh of megastars such as Prince, it seemed, was just as susceptible to mortal vulnerabilities as the rest of us.  We are all human.  We will all suffer the same fate, eventually.  My clear blue sky day suddenly seemed a little cloudy.

Human beings are geared to strive for survival.   When our bodies become dehydrated, we feel thirsty and seek out water in order to stay alive.  When threatened, we feel fear and our bodies divert blood to our muscles to ensure we can fight or run, so we can survive.  So a reminder that no-one is immune from life’s inevitable demise can often be very unsettling.  We are neurologically hard-wired to avoid threats to our existence yet on some level we all know that at some point, even our best efforts will be futile. My cloudy day was now looking distinctly rainy.

There is some speculation that Prince had advance warning that his days were numbered.  On the weekend before his death, he reportedly proclaimed to his enamoured fans “Wait a few days before you waste your prayers on me.”  If indeed this was an ominous foreshadowing of his death, then the way in which he derived his resilience in the face of such adversity is something that we can all learn from.

As more and more snippets of his last few days are released to the public, it seems that the “artist formerly known as Prince” lived his last days loyal to his lifelong passion for music, his values surrounding creative expression and his devotion to philanthropic projects he deeply believed in, despite, or perhaps because, he knew that he didn’t have much time left.  His last moments were reportedly spent in his home recording studio, actively contributing to what is now believed to be an actual physical vault of up to 2,000 unreleased songs and videos in the basement of his Paisley Park estate in Minneapolis, enough to continue to release one album per year until well past my lifetime.  He created a rainbow to follow the rain. To follow the purple rain.

If you were told you had only one year, one week or even one day to live, how would you make each moment matter?  What would you want your “vault” of memories to contain?  How would you change the way you live today?  What is stopping you from living that life, right now?

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) can help support clients deal with the difficult thoughts and emotions that inevitably arise when facing a life limiting illness, helping them identify valued directions for their remaining time on earth and supporting them as they take committed action towards adding to the “vault” we will all leave behind.  Research shows that distilling and focussing on what is most important during the end stage of life as part of a broader ACT intervention can help manage distress and improve quality of life during this very difficult time.

The Brisbane ACT Centre now offers a home visiting service by Claire Welshe, mental health occupational therapist, for those who are unable to access the Brisbane ACT Centre due to poor health or other restrictions.  Contact us today to make an appointment.

1. Ann D. Rost, Kelly Wilson, Erin Buchanan, Mikaela J. Hildebrandt, David Mutch, Improving Psychological Adjustment Among Late-Stage Ovarian Cancer Patients: Examining the Role of Avoidance in Treatment, Cognitive and Behavioral Practice, Volume 19, Issue 4, November 2012, Pages 508-517, ISSN 1077-7229, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.cbpra.2012.01.003.

(http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1077722912000132)

2. Feros DL1, Lane LCiarrochi JBlackledge JT, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) for improving the lives of cancer patients: a preliminary study, Psychooncology. 2013 Feb;22(2):459-64. doi: 10.1002/pon.2083. Epub 2011 Oct 6.

Acceptance – Getting Comfortable with the Uncomfortable

By Michelle Carroll-Walden

Can you recall the last time you had a pebble in your shoe?

You knew it was there, but you were too busy to be bothered.

Maybe you were running late for the bus or trying to enjoy the view. But each time you took a step you were reminded of how uncomfortable it was. And not feeling comfortable is not acceptable. So you decided to stop what you were doing and get rid of the offending culprit… that annoying little pebble.

But what if that pebble can’t be so easily tossed?

What if you can’t stop to get it out because you’ll miss the bus? Or worse still, you just can’t find it in your shoe. So you have to put up with it all day, knowing it is there and there is nothing you can do. How uncomfortable. How unbearable.

Sometimes our thoughts or feelings are a lot like that annoying little pebble. They can be painful, irritating, uncomfortable, and even unbearable. We can choose to ignore our thoughts. We can distract ourselves with social media or shopping and it seems ok for a while. But just like the annoying pebble in your shoe, those uncomfortable thoughts or feelings will not go away. And as that pebble starts to dig in, we may even take drastic action to rid ourselves of it. We may avoid friends, family, or activities we enjoy. We may even try to lose ourselves in addictions, such as drinking, drugs or gambling. Despite our best efforts those uncomfortable thoughts or feelings will always remain. But unlike the annoying little pebble they cannot be so easily tossed away. And trying so hard to get rid of them can cost us so much in terms of living! These costs can range from direct health impacts, to huge credit card debts, to pushing away the very people we most love and care about.

So what’s the answer?

It’s about learning to get comfortable with the uncomfortable! It’s about a willingness to let the pebble stay in your shoe.  It’s about not struggling with it so much, or pushing it away so hard. It’s about not allowing our stories, our thoughts, our uncomfortable sensations, to consume us. It’s about becoming aware that they are there but not letting them to take us away from the view – of what really matters most to us in life – the very things which may well bring up those difficult thoughts and feelings.

Of course acceptance isn’t as simple as tossing out a pebble. It’s a tricky skill – but a skill we can quickly learn, and gradually improve upon day by day. And what are the costs of continuing to struggle? What are you missing out on? Who are you pushing away?

Could you be willing to leave the pebble in your shoe and learn to sit with the discomfort, in kindness and self-compassion, if it means you get to enjoy the view?

Where does Suffering Come From?

By Dr. Rob Purssey

The ACT model predicts that a lot of suffering is caused by becoming entangled in difficult and painful thoughts and feelings, and then is further exacerbated by trying to push those thoughts and feelings away.

In ACT terminology getting caught up with difficult thoughts is called ‘cognitive fusion’, and trying to push unwanted thoughts and feelings away is called ‘experiential avoidance’. Fusion with difficult thoughts and struggle with painful feelings are very likely to be key processes in all human psychological struggle. What can we do to keep moving forward when facing pain and suffering in our lives? More than a thousand studies suggest that a major part of the answer is learning ACT – psychological flexibility skills.

An exciting recent study of a large sample of community adults recruited via the internet (N=955) examined the interaction between cognitive fusion and experiential avoidance in relation to psychological distress – and found, as predicted by the model:

“The predicted interactive effect was found across all four symptom measures, with the significant positive association between cognitive fusion and symptom measures being strongest at higher levels of experiential avoidance. These results provide support for proposals that individuals with high cognitive fusion and high experiential avoidance may be particularly prone to experiencing psychological distress.”

You can check out the study here: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2212144716300035

ACT aims to help people to more effectively handle difficult thoughts and feelings by learning key psychological flexibility skills, and with self compassion and resilience, keep doing what is important, even with their  tough inner experiences. Our skills coaching at the Brisbane ACT Centre directly addresses both cognitive fusion and experiential avoidance, and our resources page is a great place to start.

Directly undermining fusion with defusion, and directly increasing psychological flexibility with willingness and acceptance – key ACT skills – can quickly improve your life, easing struggling with suffering, enhancing more vital living. If that interests you get in touch with our friendly staff at the Brisbane ACT Centre today.

___________________________________________

Abstract

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2212144716300035

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, a popular transdiagnostic treatment approach, is based on the central tenant that human suffering develops and is exacerbated by psychological inflexibility. Cognitive fusion and experiential avoidance are two interrelated processes central to psychological inflexibility. Despite substantive theoretical rationale that these two processes impact one another’s association with emotional distress and psychopathology, the interaction between cognitive fusion and experiential avoidance in relation to psychological distress has yet to be empirically examined in the extant literature. As such, we examined this interactive effect in relation to four indices of psychological distress (anxiety, depression, stress, and posttraumatic stress) in a large sample of community adults recruited via the internet (N=955). The predicted interactive effect was found across all four symptom measures, with the significant positive association between cognitive fusion and symptom measures being strongest at higher levels of experiential avoidance. These results provide support for proposals that individuals with high cognitive fusion and high experiential avoidance may be particularly prone to experiencing psychological distress.

Can Washing Dishes Improve Your Life?

By Claire Welshe

When was the last time you looked at your empty coffee mug and realised you had no recollection of drinking it?  Perhaps you even wondered if someone else drank it…. until you realised you were the only one at home!

It’s easy to go into “automatic pilot” when we’re at home, completing daily chores routinely while our minds run away with worries… such as; who you will talk to at your friend’s party tonight or whether your presentation at work yesterday was good enough.  The next thing you know, you feel so stressed that you just want to run away and hide under the doona of your unmade bed.

Believe it or not, approaching domestic chores in a deliberate, mindful way can help you manage your stress levels.

Start by choosing an activity that you do every day, say washing the dishes, and consciously set this daily task as a reminder to do some mindfulness practice.  Start simply, perhaps just by noticing the sounds made by bowls and cutlery clinking together in the sink.  Then notice how the warm suds against your hands contrast the cool evening air on your shoulders.  Smell the lemony scent of detergent mixed with the remnant cooking smells of the meal you just enjoyed.  Notice the rainbow of colours reflected off the tiny, glistening soap bubbles.  Move the dishcloth slowly and deliberately, enjoying the satisfaction of seeing a grimy bowl transform into a sparkling dish, occasionally slow-dripping clear water droplets as it dries.   When you notice your mind starting to wander away, gently bring your attention back to the dishes.  Focus solely on the task.  Don’t stop until you’re done.

Even doing a small mindfulness practise, such as the one described above, can train your mind to bring your attention and awareness under voluntary control, rather than on “automatic pilot”, when we let our minds run away with its endless list of worries.  Mindfulness simply involves moment to moment awareness of your experience, without judgement.  Despite being a simple concept to describe, mindfulness can sometimes be difficult to put into practise, especially when we have developed a habit of focussing attention on worries about the future and rumination of the past instead of what is happening right here, right now.  To help train your brain in this skill, choose an activity that you know you will perform every day and use it to serve as a daily reminder to flex your mindfulness muscle.  It can be having a shower, drinking your morning coffee, folding laundry or cooking the evening meal.

Choose one thing to start with, practice it every day if you can, and notice the greater sense of mental wellbeing, improved working memory, reduced stress, improved focus, reduced emotional reactivity and greater flexibility in your thinking that will start to follow.  The more you practice, the better you get!

Who knew that washing dishes could improve your life so much!

What is ACT & Briefly on Medication

Welcome to Brisbane ACT Centre’s first ever blog post. I thought I’d talk in a less formal way about “What is ACT” and how we integrate with medication use in psychological problems. Firstly, off the bat, I personally reckon that “Acceptance and Commitment Therapy” – the underlying model for our work here at Brisbane ACT Centre – is a pretty awful name for a fabulous approach. But it is a name which just happens to make for a great acronym – ACT!

Okay, better break down what I mean by that: Acceptance can easily sound like tolerance, like simply putting up with feeling anxious, depressed or in pain, which is not at all what we mean. The acceptance part of ACT is about learning specific, easy to practice, evidence based and self-compassionate mindfulness skills to better handle difficult experiences so they’re less likely to be an obstacle to living your life. We’re not asking you to want, or like feeling lousy but we might ask – how long have you struggled to get rid of those feelings? And how successful has that been, long term? And what has it cost you? Skilled ACT therapists can teach you simple ways to be more present in the moment, to simply notice to your worrisome thoughts “as thoughts – not as truths or untruths“, to experience difficult feelings as manageable sensations, and do what matters in your life, in this moment and the next.

Commitment might come across as “having to do things, or forcing yourself”, again, not at all what we mean. See what I mean, great name hey? The commitment part of ACT is more about learning to be a little more aware of what you care about in life. From tiny things like chilling out, eating a bit more healthily, to bigger ones like relationships and work, and becoming a little more able to make small moves, day by day, toward these things. Our values are like a direction on a compass, and small goals are like towns along the way, letting us know when we’re heading where we wish to go. Having a skilled navigator to help us choose our directions and having a great support team to encourage and check up on our progress, can help us along the way. That’s the therapist or coaching role in ACT.

ACT may seem new to many, but really has a 70 year pedigree. ACT simply integrates the best evidence-based practices of decades of behavioral and cognitive research and treatment in an ongoing, ever developing and improving therapy. This includes a scientifically grounded, pragmatic approach to the use of medications.

We recognise that all medications may have benefits and harms, and we’re very careful with informed consent and wise use. It surprises many people to hear that psychiatric medications don’t “fix chemical imbalances” but may take the edge off difficult feelings by causing imbalances – yet this is well known and long proven, and is not unusual with drugs – paracetamol doesn’t help my headache or fever by fixing a paracetamol imbalance, but it can certainly be helpful in certain situations, and less in others. Same for psych drugs. See this recent article also here and this related blog post for more on disproven medication beliefs and their unintended consequences. For more on how ACT therapists relate to medication use, stay tuned!

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy is at heart about workability. Being where you are, and doing what matters in your life. We use any and all ways to help you with this, and we research these scrupulously, test our assumptions, try to find out where we are wrong, and continuously improve. In only the 9 short years I’ve been learning and practising ACT, our approach has deepened, with even more self-compassion focus, briefer and broader applications, more neuroscientific support, and an exponentially growing clinical and research community. Welcome again to Brisbane ACT Centre, and to our blog.

With heart.

Rob
Dr Rob Purssey
MBBS FRANZCP
Psychiatrist and ACT Therapist

Can ACT and Mindfulness Help Ease the Burden of Common Medical Problems?

ACT is closely related to other mindfulness-based approaches, sometimes called “fellow travellers” and two in particular are Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy and Mindfulness-based Stress Reduction – MBCT and MBSR.

An important recent review article in the highest profile open source Journal, “Plos one”, showed “Conclusion – The evidence supports the use of MBCT and MBSR to alleviate symptoms, both mental and physical, in the adjunct treatment of cancer, cardiovascular disease, chronic pain, depression, anxiety disorders and in prevention in healthy adults and children.”

13 RCTs showed significant beneficial effect on anxiety. 17 RCTs showed benefit. In this review mindfulness were shown to be helpful with psychological adjustment to cancer, chronic pain, cardiovascular disease, also various mental disorders and mixed populations. Mindfulness helped subclinical anxiety in healthy populations, also depressive symptoms and stress. In children and adolescents significant intergroup improvement in stress, anxiety and several symptoms were found, with more time spent in sitting meditation predictive.

Important review of the evidence of mindfulness based clinical psychology interventions for many conditions, with many countries across the globe, showed beneficial effects mostly in mental health outcomes: depression, anxiety, stress and quality of life all improving significantly. And chronic care mindfulness helped coping with pain, depression, anxiety and stress, and improved quality of life.

Similarly, the most recent meta-analysis of the ACT literature found ACT was superior to waitlist, to psychological placebo and to the standard treatment as usual. ACT was also superior on secondary outcomes, life satisfaction/quality measures and process measures compared to control conditions.

All of the recent meta-analyses have similar findings and some meta-analyses have found superiority for ACT over traditional CBT methods.

To read the Plos one article in detail go to this link