ACT Mindfulness & Acceptance Practices Flashcards

In ACT, 'defusion' techniques are primarily used to help clients do what with their thoughts?

Answer: Create distance and reduce the literal impact of thoughts

Defusion helps clients observe thoughts as mental events rather than literal truths, reducing their behavioral and emotional impact.

Which mindfulness exercise in ACT involves observing thoughts as if they were leaves floating down a stream?

Answer: Leaves on a stream

The 'Leaves on a Stream' exercise is a classic ACT defusion technique where clients visualize placing thoughts on leaves and watching them drift by.

In ACT, 'experiential avoidance' refers to:

Answer: Attempts to control or eliminate unwanted inner experiences

Experiential avoidance is the attempt to control, suppress, or escape from unwanted thoughts, feelings, or sensations, which ACT identifies as a key source of psychological suffering.

The ACT concept of 'present-moment awareness' is most closely associated with which therapeutic tradition?

Answer: Mindfulness-based practices

Present-moment awareness in ACT is rooted in mindfulness traditions, emphasizing conscious, non-judgmental contact with current experience.

When a client says 'I am anxious,' an ACT therapist would most likely encourage the client to reframe this as:

Answer: 'I notice I am having a feeling of anxiety'

ACT promotes defusion by shifting from fused identification ('I am anxious') to observing language ('I notice I am having...'), creating psychological distance from the emotion.

Which of the following best describes 'acceptance' as used in ACT?

Answer: Willingly making room for difficult thoughts and feelings without unnecessary struggle

In ACT, acceptance means opening up to difficult inner experiences and allowing them to exist without excessive defense or avoidance, not passive resignation.