ACT and cancer

Submitted by catharina belgraver on June 30, 2009 - 10:59pm
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Hi everyone,

I am wondering if there are any ACT books or articles out there on (breast) cancer ? I had a quick look on this website and can only find brief but promising abstracts, but may have missed something.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated, thanks.

Go well,
Catharina

‹ Defusing as an art of observing ACT, Positive Psychology and Coaching ›

ACT and cancer

Submitted by Ray Owen on July 6, 2009 - 3:59pm.

Catharina,

I'm not sure there is much published - I too have seen reference to a report (?possibly in Spanish) but nothing further, but that might be because I'm new to the world of ACT and therefore unaware of the whole literature.

It's the potential applicabilityto cancer that got me interested in ACT. After 10 years of applying amended versions of CBT to the difficulties people affected by cancer present, I got involved in Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy about 5 year ago, which has proved really useful by being explicit about not challenging thought content (because some of the worst thoughts are indeed sadly accurate for many in ths group), focus on the present and acceptance (or at least recognition) of the presence of suffering.
What ACT seems to me to offer are the added dimensions of; better individual tailoring of the intervention, a less rigid group requirement, focus on values and 'what to do now', and of course more interesting metaphors...

I very much hope that there'll be ACT & cancer stuff being published soon. If not, maybe I'll be in a position to come up with something of my own together in a few years time!

Please let me know if you come across anything good...

With best wishes,

Ray

Dr Ray Owen
Clinical Health Psychologist
Health Psychology Service
Herefordshire PCT
Belmont
Hereford
UK
HR2 9RP

Tel: 01432 363978
Fax: 01432 363934