Dr. Steven Hayes, the creator of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, joins the show to help us explore how to use techniques from this powerful approach to therapy to address major challenges and improve our wellbeing.
About our Guest: Dr. Steven Hayes is Nevada Foundation Professor in the Behavior Analysis program at the Department of Psychology of the University of Nevada. He’s the creator of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), and the author of 44 books and over 600 scientific articles. His most recent book is A Liberated Mind: How To Pivot Toward What Matters, an essential guide to ACT. Learn more about Dr. Steven Hayes and explore a variety of his resources and offerings at his website StevenCHayes.com.
Key Topics:
- 2:25: The basics of ACT
- 5:30: The Lord of the Rings and psychological flexibility
- 7:15: Accepting our own history
- 10:45: How can we accept painful things?
- 13:45: Language, technology, and how it gets in the way
- 18:00: Coming into the present moment
- 21:00: Determinism, autonomy, and agency
- 26:30: How can we make change last?
- 29:30: Steven’s experience with accepting tinnitus
- 34:45: How to keep growing when the world pushes back
- 45:30: Giving people an opportunity to impress you
- 49:00: Dealing with anger
- 53:30: Pitfalls while using ACT
- 56:10: Recap
