The use of metaphor is central to the implementation of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) and dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), and is a powerful tool for all practicing psychotherapists. In Metaphor in Practice, psychotherapist Niklas Toerneke presents the first practical book to combine the behavioral and linguistic sciences of metaphor, and illustrates how and when to apply metaphors in practice for better treatment outcomes. The use of metaphors and experiential exercises can help clients gain a deeper understanding of the problems that cause their disorders. Metaphors help clients connect with their values, and often spark the inspiration and motivation needed to make a commitment to change. And while metaphor is central to relational frame theory (RFT), acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), and dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), research now shows its usefulness has an even broader reach. In this book, you'll find a scientific analysis of metaphor based on over thirty years of research, as well as trends in research over the last ten years. The book includes an overview of RFT, how metaphor has influenced the community of behavior analysis, as well as available clinical research on metaphor use. You'll also discover how to create metaphors for functional analysis, distance of observation, and things that matter to your client. Most importantly, you'll find practical examples of metaphors and clinical exercises you can use in-session.

The traditional practice of psychiatry has been focused on reducing or eliminating distressing, unwanted symptoms. But what if the key to health and well-being is not to be symptom free, but rather to function effectively in life even when symptoms are present? What if symptoms serve an adaptive and motivational function, rather than being signals of a latent illness? What if the key to personal health is the ability to accept symptoms for what they are and to do what matters in life at the same time? This is the underlying proposition of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), and this book-a collaboration among six clinicians from diverse practice backgrounds-is the first to systematically describe the principles and practices of ACT as they apply to psychiatric assessment, case analysis, and treatment. The guide begins with an in-depth analysis of the ACT model, from its scientific origins in the study of the functions of human language to a fully elaborated model for clinical assessment and intervention and outlines the clinical benefits of ACT in everyday practice. The second section of the book shows the reader how to conduct a streamlined assessment of the patient's life context, how to detect and intervene with the patient's unworkable emotional and behavioral avoidance strategies, and how to blend the use of medication treatment and behavioral interventions in a way that augments the beneficial effects of both approaches. Chapter-length examples in the third section discuss how to deliver ACT in an ambulatory psychiatric setting, in a hospital consultation-liaison service, and in an inpatient psychiatric context. The section also includes a chapter examining the all-important issue of teaching ACT to psychiatric residents as well as affiliated health professionals working in medical or psychiatric treatment team contexts. Learning Acceptance and Commitment Therapy uses a diverse array of case examples and clinical dialogues to offer readers a real-life view of the methodology in practice. Each chapter also includes additional reading resources to pursue should a particular theoretical or applied clinical concept create a desire to learn more. Additionally, readers have unlimited access to an online instructional library that includes video demonstrations of core ACT clinical strategies "in action" as well as a host of written practice support tools and worksheets. This book is a must for clinicians who want to expand their ability to improve clinical outcomes for the wide range of patients seen in clinical practice.

In this book Niklas Toerneke presents the building blocks of RFT: language as a particular kind of relating, derived stimulus relations, and transformation of stimulus functions. He then shows how these concepts are essential to understanding acceptance and commitment therapy and other therapeutic models. Learning RFT shows how to use experiential exercises and metaphors in psychological treatment and explains how they can help your clients. This book belongs on the bookshelves of psychologists, psychotherapists, students, and others seeking to deepen their understanding of psychological treatment from a behavioral perspective.

When cognitive behavior therapy emerged in the 1950s, driven by the work of Albert Ellis and Aaron Beck, basic behavior principles were largely sidelined in clinical psychology curricula. Issues in cognition became the focus of case conceptualization and intervention planning for most therapists. But as the new third-wave behavior therapies begin to address weaknesses in the traditional cognitive behavioral models-principally the modest effectiveness of thought stopping and cognitive restructuring techniques-basic behavior principles are once again attracting the interest of front-line clinicians. Many of today's clinicians, though, received their training during the years in which classical behaviorism was not a major part of clinical education. In order to make the best use of the new contextual behaviorism, they need to revisit basic behavioral principles from a practical angle. This book addresses this need. The ABCs of Human Behavior offers practicing clinicians a pithy and practical introduction to the basics of modern behavioral psychology. The book focuses both on the classical principles of learning as well as more recent developments that explain language and cognition in behavioral and contextual terms. These principles are not just discussed in the abstract-rather the book shows how the principles of learning apply in the clinical context. Practical and easy to read, the book walks clinicians through both common sense and clinical examples that help them learn to use behavioral principles to observe, explain, and influence behavior in a therapeutic setting.