Self-as-Context in Therapy: Help Your Clients Build a Flexible Self with Acceptance and Commitment Therapy

Gain a deeper understanding of self-as-context, learn practical interventions, and help your clients thrive.

Self-as-context is one of the most important of the six core processes of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), yet it is also one of the least understood. Many therapists struggle to fully implement it in their practice--perhaps due to a lack of concrete techniques for real world application--or they may become stuck when facing roadblocks in-session. So how can you gain a deeper understanding of self-as-context as a behavior and learn practical interventions for empowering clients with this essential capacity?

Self-as-Context in Therapy takes a challenging concept and translates it into an accessible, actionable process for helping clients cultivate a more flexible self and take valued action. You will start with an exploration of how the self develops, and the clinical implications of inhibiting factors in this process. You'll also learn about three useful aspects of experiencing our self--self-as-process, self-as-content, and self-as-context--and how to recognize when self-as-context work is beneficial in therapy.

Finally, the book offers simple strategies to train clients in self-as-context, so they can integrate key lessons and techniques into their daily lives. With clear examples of how to apply self-as-context to common causes of suffering such as grief and loss, burnout, stress, addiction, depression, as well as the challenges of parenting and relationships, you will come away with concrete skills for helping clients improve their lives.

If you're looking for resources to help your clients embrace new possibilities and move toward a life more deeply aligned with their values, this comprehensive guide can help you get started.

Beate M.E. Ebert is a distinguished behavioral clinical psychologist with a private practice in her hometown of Aschaffenburg, Germany. She is a fellow and peer-reviewed acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) trainer of the Association for Contextual Behavioral Science (ACBS), and a founding member of the German-speaking ACBS Chapter, where she served as a first chairperson. In 2010, she founded Commit and Act Germany (CAA-G), a nonprofit providing psychosocial support in conflict zones such as Sierra Leone in West Africa.

Ebert, along with her team, trained local health workers using methods like ACT and PROSOCIAL, adapted to local culture and challenges. She helped establish Commit and Act Foundation Sierra Leone (CAF-SL), aiding thousands of violence victims and training entire village communities in violence prevention; today it has become one of the most influential non-government organizations in the region. Through her efforts, Ebert also initiated a fruitful communal development partnership between Aschaffenburg, Germany, and Bo, Sierra Leone.

Ebert's contributions were recognized with the Award of Merit from the Bo District Ebola Task Force for her outstanding leadership in fighting the Ebola epidemic in Sierra Leone, Aschaffenburg's Agenda 21 Prize for CAA-G's extraordinary engagement in providing psychosocial support during the Ebola crisis, and the Engagement Prize awarded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development for her long-standing, personal, and voluntary commitment to implementing the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals.

Steven C. Hayes, PhD, is Foundation Professor Emeritus at the University of Nevada, Reno; and president of the Institute for Better Health. Author of forty-eight books and more than 700 scientific articles, he has been president of numerous professional organizations and is among the most cited living psychologists. He has shown in his research on relational frame theory (RFT) how and why language and symbolic thought leads both to human achievement and to human suffering, and has guided the extension of RFT to ACT.