Mindfulness and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy: why combine them

In the field of psychotherapy and resources for mental health care, it is very common for problems to arise strategies that, despite having been developed in parallel and aiming at different objectives, are reinforced mutually. This occurs because, in the same way that psychopathologies overlap in many aspects or can even favor the appearance of others, forms of psychotherapy can also establish affinities between they.

An example of this is the combined effect of mindfulness and the Acceptance and commitment therapy, two forms of intervention that are encompassed within what is known as Third Generation Therapies and that have several things in common. Let's see why it is a good option to combine them in clinical practice in the context of psychological therapy.

What is Mindfulness?

Full Attention, or Mindfulness, is a practice with therapeutic potential that is inspired by vipassana meditation Associated with certain variants of Buddhism and Hinduism. Although it branches into different types of exercises, many of which are relatively simple and can be applied in a few minutes, its "core" version was developed by Jon Kabat-Zinn in the 1970s in the context of his MBSR (Mindfulness-based stress reduction) program, which was designed to help people who suffer from stress problems, as indicated by your name.

Kabat-Zinn emphasized the need to create a "secular" version of meditation based on scientific evidence, so that was detached from any religious element and was perfected according to its objective effects on the well-being of the people.

And what does Mindfulness consist of? Fundamentally, it proposes a series of exercises to regulate one's own attentional focus, causing the consciousness of the person who practices Mindfulness to be fixed in the present moment, and observe and feel the sensations that come from the here and now without judging or evaluating them in moral terms. Thus, the experience of Mindfulness consists of paying full attention to what is happening at the moment, without letting ourselves drag by our concerns linked to what is in our past or what could come in the future.

• Related article: "Mental health: definition and characteristics according to psychology"

What is Acceptance and Commitment Therapy?

On the other hand, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is a form of psychotherapy that renounces the objective of making discomfort or pain (physical or emotional) disappear completely and focuses on help people accept the elements of life associated with displeasure, so as not to give them more power than they actually have.

And it is that one of the ideas on which the ACT is based is that trying to eliminate what makes us feel bad makes it come back to our mind again and again, so learning to live with with it, especially when we do not have total control over what makes us feel that way, it is the best way to limit its depleting effect on health mental.

• You may be interested in: "The importance of what we say to ourselves when managing discomfort"

The therapeutic potential of Mindfulness and ACT

As we have seen, both ACT and Mindfulness have in common that they lead us to an experience based on acceptance and possibility. to see our problems with perspective, to stop trying to "put out fires" and put those solutions that really contribute to our mental health in the medium and long term, instead of trying to feel perfectly well in a immediate. That is why the combination of these two elements is so advantageous in psychotherapy. In both cases, a change of mentality is encouraged when it comes to managing emotions and experiences linked to discomfort, something that allows us to fall into the behavioral dynamics of self-sabotage.

• Related article: "The importance of what we say to ourselves when managing discomfort"

Do you want to train in Mindfulness and ACT?

If you are interested in learning all about Mindfulness and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, he Master in Third Generation Therapies in online mode offered by EDECA Formación it is perfect for you. In it, you can also train in the theory and practice of such important aspects as Emotional Intelligence, clinical hypnosis, positive psychology, systemic therapy, and more. On the other hand, you can study it at your own pace over 12 months.