Component Analysis of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy
Research type
Research Study
Full title
The Impact of Self As Context in the Treatment of Long-Term Health Conditions with Acceptance and Commitment Therapy; a feasibility pilot study
IRAS ID
144363
Contact name
Daniel Stockton
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Sheffield
Research summary
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is a relatively new therapeutic approach. The goal of ACT is to teach psychological skills to clients to help them handle unwanted thoughts and feelings in such a way that they have much less impact on their lives, to help clarify what is truly important and meaningful to them, and use that knowledge to guide them to take action that enriches their lives.
We are looking to see if a specific component of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) called ’self as context’ is an important and necessary part of this therapeutic approach.
Participants will be recruited from an Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) service in Sheffield who have been referred with a long-term health condition and who are also experiencing mental health difficulties (mild – moderate anxiety and/or depression).
Participants will be randomly allocated to one of two study arms. Half will receive full ACT and half will receive ACT without the ’self as context’ component of the treatment. This will therefore test whether the self as context component of ACT is truly an active ingredient of effective ACT.
Participants will be asked to complete questionnaires that indicate how they are feeling. These questionnaires are used before and after therapy too see if people have improved after receiving therapy. We will look at the questionnaires that our participants complete to compare if one arm improves more then the other. We predict that those who receive ACT with self as context will improve more than those who receive ACT without self as context.
REC name
East Midlands - Derby Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
14/EM/0047
Date of REC Opinion
19 Feb 2014
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion