The ACT Therapeutic Posture

The following is a basic overview of an ACT therapeutic stance.  This is not to say are hard and fast rule that you must hold yourself to.  We will all slip up, but rather see this as a guideline for how best to engage for the betterment of all involved.

Assume that dramatic, powerful change is possible and possible quickly

Whatever a client is experiencing is not the enemy. It is the fight against experiencing experiences that is  harmful and traumatic.

You can't rescue clients from the difficulty and challenge of growth.

Compassionately accept no reasons -- the issue is workability not reasonableness.  If the client is trapped, frustrated, confused, afraid, angry or anxious be glad -- this is exactly what needs  to be worked on and it is here now. Turn the barrier into the opportunity.

If you yourself feel trapped, frustrated, confused, afraid, angry or anxious be glad: you are now in the same boat as the client and your work will be humanized by that.

In the area of acceptance, defusion, self, and values it is more important as a therapist to do as you say than to say what to do.

Don't argue. Don’t persuade. The issue is the client's life and the client’s experience, not your opinions and beliefs. Belief is not your friend. Your mind is not your friend. It is not your enemy either.

Same goes for your clients.  You are in the same boat. Never protect yourself by moving one up on a client.

The issue is always function, not form or frequency.

When in doubt ask yourself or the client "what is  this in the service of."

ACT THERAPEUTIC STEPS 

• Be passionately interested in what the client truly wants  
• Compassionately confront unworkable agendas, always respecting the client’s experience as the ultimate arbiter  
• Support the client in feeling and thinking what they directly feel and think already -- as it is not as what it says it is -- and to find a place from which that is possible.  
• Help the client move in a valued direction, with all of their history and automatic reactions.  
• Help the client detect traps, fusions, and strange loops, and to accept, defuse, and move in a valued  direction that builds larger and larger patterns of effective behavior  
• Repeat, expand the scope of the work, and repeat again, until the clients generalizes  Don’t believe a word you are saying ... or me either