Letting a little nonverbal air into the room: Insights from acceptance and commitment therapy Part 1: Philosophical and theoretical underpinnings

In recent years, a new “wave” of mindfulness based Cognitive Behavior Therapies (CBT) has become popular. Such approaches include Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT; Acceptance and commitment therapy: An experiential approach to behaviour change. New York: Guilford Press, 1999), Mindfulness-based Cognitive Therapy for Depression (Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for depression: A new approach to preventing relapse. New York: Guilford Press, 2002), and Mindfulness-based Stress Management (Full catastrophe living: using the wisdom of your body and mind to face stress, pain, and illness. New York: Dell Publishing, 1990). In contrast to traditional CBT, these approaches often minimize attempts to change the form and frequency of dysfunctional thoughts. Is there any way to integrate traditional CBT with mindfulness based CBT? To answer this question, we discuss the philosophical and theoretical underpinnings of one form of traditional CBT (Rational-Emotive and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) and one form of mindfulness based CBT (ACT). We argue that some aspects of each therapy can be integrated. However, in order to prevent techniques from being used haphazardly or inconsistently, we suggest that the different forms of CBT need to be driven by a common philosophical orientation (e.g., functional contextualism) and theoretical orientation (e.g., Relational Frame Theory).