Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Mindfulness: Specific Processes, Evidence, and Methods

Mindfulness-based approaches and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) are frequently talked about in the same sentence. Both have captured the current interest of those designing and delivering treatments for both mental and physical health conditions. These approaches are similar in their focus on psychological context, their integration of processes of acceptance and control, and their emphasis on reducing the dominance of verbal processes over behavior patterns. Yet they are also distinct, mostly for historical reasons, in their breadth of therapeutic focus and their scientific strategy. This chapter addresses these issues, considers applications specifically within chronic pain management, and particularly examines mindfulness from an ACT point of view.