Acceptance and Commitment Therapy: An Existential Approach To Therapy?
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.65828/yk9znp11Keywords:
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), existential-phenomenological therapy, integration, researchAbstract
This paper aims to explore the similarities and tensions between Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and existential-phenomenological therapy. Parallel processes and attitudes are outlined, and conceptual and historical differences are discussed. The benefits of such a comparative exploration are also reviewed, with a view to assisting communication and integration between these two models. I trained as an existential counselling psychologist nearly ten years ago. Since then, and like many other practitioners, I have travelled from the forests and clearings of existential-phenomenological psychotherapy, through the well-designed and beautiful cities of Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and the lakes of mindfulness, and arrived among the mountains of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). I often feel that I am practicing existentially when I am using ACT to assist my clients. In this paper, I will seek to clarify my thinking around this. Is this an illusion? What is currently being written about this? How is ACT an existential approach to therapy? How is it not? And does this matter? How could or should therapists respond to this?
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