Browsing by Author "Välisaari, Melina"

Aims. Because there are many people who wish to go to therapy compared to available therapy, it is important that therapy is as effective as possible. This means that the therapeutic methods targeted at the individual’s problem areas should be as suitable as possible. For maximizing effectiveness, it is important that therapy can be tailored to match the needs of each individual. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) consists of six core processes: acceptance, defusion, present moment, the observant self, values and committed action. The aim of this thesis was to examine, by reviewing the literature, which core processes of ACT should be emphasized for patients experiencing pain. Methods. A search was done on the PubMed database using the keywords (acceptance and commitment therapy) AND ((core traits) OR (core processes) OR (core mechanisms) OR (key traits) OR (key processes) OR (key mechanisms)). Articles focusing on patient groups suffering from pain were selected from the results. Conclusions. In ACT aimed at clients experiencing pain, it is generally beneficial to emphasize at least acceptance and values, which impact functioning and anxiety and depression symptoms. Both acceptance and the observant self also help with lowering pain interference. If the goal is to improve functioning, committed action and present moment will probably be more suitable approaches than defusion and the observant self.