Core principles in acceptance and commitment therapy: An application to anorexia Original Research Article

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) views cognition and emotion differently in their roles in psychological problems. Both popular culture and many models of psychopathology conceive of negative thoughts and emotions as states that must be eliminated, reduced, or supplanted. ACT posits that these negative emotional, cognitive, and bodily states may or may not produce behavior problems. Further, ACT suggests that attempts to control these states may actually worsen mental health problems. Strategies to control, eliminate, or suppress negative states, called experiential avoidance, are directly targeted. ACT seeks to treat the functional class of experiential avoidance rather than specific diagnostic categories. However, ACT has been applied to a number of DSM-IV disorders. We detail the application of ACT to an adolescent diagnosed with anorexia and comment on the treatment implemented by . We discuss the broad assessment issues necessitated by the type of difficulties a patient with anorexia may have. The general structure of an ACT intervention is elaborated on, including values, exposure, defusion, and empowerment.