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 enlarge | Author: Steven C. Hayes
Publisher: New Harbinger Publications
Category: Book
List Price: $19.95
Buy New: $10.85
You Save: $9.10 (46%)
New (41) Used (18) from $9.84
Avg. Customer Rating:  31 reviews
Sales Rank: 2286
Media: Paperback
Edition: 1
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 206
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 10.9 x 8.5 x 0.6
ISBN: 1572244259
Dewey Decimal Number: 616.89142
EAN: 9781572244252
ASIN: 1572244259
Publication Date: October 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Not worn, not marked. Plenty in stock for immediate shipment.
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| Customer Reviews:
 The most helpful therapy tool yet!! March 8, 2007
15 out of 15 found this review helpful
At the end of my therapy my therapist recommended this book to me as a continuation of my therapy. The book has been very halpful and in many respects more helpful then therapy. It teaches us to realise that we can choose to stand-back from our thoughts and observe them rather then buy into them. The most helpful part has been the Chapter on the 'observer self' which there is a great discussion about on page 99.
If you tried other self-help approaches, try this, it's not like any other. January 24, 2007
26 out of 27 found this review helpful
Buddhism teaches that suffering is part of life and all our attempts to avoid the suffering only make it worse. ACT teaches the same thing. In that sense, Buddhism and ACT are the same. But ACT's intellectual roots are firmly within the Western scientific psychology tradition, so the author did not so much borrow from Buddhism, as arrive at the same result by a different method and then observed the similarity after the fact.
The book begins by stepping you through the science and psychology of how the mind works, inviting you to see the inner workings for yourself through many exercises. Ultimately it leads to a simple conclusion - your anxiety, depression, or whatever ails may not be an "illness" at all, but simply normal mental processes that go awry when used to try to avoid negative thoughts and emotions.
Most therapy attempts to remove the negative thoughts and feelings. ACT differs completely by asking you to ACCEPT negative thoughts and feelings as part of being human. To do this it shows you how to separate the "real you" from the contents of your mind. The negative doesn't go away, you just become more willing and able to live it. Then the focus switch to exploring your values, what's important to you personally. These values orient you on your journey through life. Finally you COMMIT to the course of action you yourself choose in accordance with your own values, and you use the skills you've learned to avoid the pitfalls that stopped you in the past.
ACT bears one more resemblance to Buddhism. 2500 years ago, the Buddha stirred up the Hindu establishment by presenting ideas that were at once radically new and yet based in a deep understanding of Hindu mystical teachings. ACT does the same to western psychology. It is firmly grounded in a good and growing body of scientific evidence and clinical successes, yet could well turn out to be the most important advance in psychology since Freud. ACT is the first psychotherapy to develop a complete system around the idea that negative feelings are natural and normal, but it is our attempts to escape those feelings that creates pathologies. If you have tried other self-help techniques, therapy, pills and nothing has worked for you, it is definitely time to try this.
Get Out of your mind and into your life January 15, 2007
6 out of 8 found this review helpful
I have just begun this book with my chronic pain specialist and already have benefited from it. I'm sure as I go along I will learn more to help me deal with chronic pain and being a military wife with a husband serving in Iraq. This book is beneficial for many aspects of your life that may be troubling you or causing you to fall. I would strongly recommend this book.
 Hands-on guidance January 10, 2007
6 out of 6 found this review helpful
A very good introduction to the benefits of mindfulness. The book is strong on explaining HOW to wrestle control of your life away from your emotions, fears, or anxieties -- as opposed to explaining WHY these issues have arisen. Sometimes its exercises seem rather pedestrian or childish, but you can easily skip over them.
I would recommend some of Cheri Huber's books on mindfulness and Zen Buddhism as companions to this book and its approach. In particular, I would recommend her book titled "Be the Person You Want to Find." Although that book's title suggests it is about relationships and attracting the right mate, it really goes beyond that and into how to live a more fulfilling and authentic life day to day. I also would recommend Lorne Ladner's "The Lost Art of Compassion." It blends Western and Buddhist psychologies.
I think ACT has more akin to Buddhist psychology than the authors care to admit, but I don't think that detracts from this book's usefulness at all.
 Slow going, Poor Format September 16, 2006
7 out of 26 found this review helpful
This is a slow, slow read, with too many exercies that do not lead you very far into understaning the authors aims. The book meanders, is excessively long, and all of what is said could fit into a smaller, better edited work. I kept thinking as I read--what is the point.
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