DClinPsy Portfolio Volume 1 of 3 - University of Hertfordshire ...

The last two are choosing life directions/values and taking committed action, (Hayes,
Luoma, Bond, Masuda and Lillis, 2006).
Those advocating a transdiagnostic approach have suggested that assessment and
treatment could be targeted at the processes in common across disorders, (Harvey,
Watkins, Mansell and Shafran, 2004). The ACT approach allows for such a strategy, its
treatment technique will be elaborated below to exemplify how this is done.
ACT treatment of adolescents with eating disorders
Heffner and Eifert’s (2004) workbook on AN states the aim is for patients to learn to
recognise that trying to control and change what they feel and think about themselves by
losing weight is risky and does not work in the long term. It also aims to help individuals
with AN deal with out of control emotions, thoughts and situations more effectively and
to identify what they value in life and what they want their life to stand for. Preliminary
findings have been positive with Heffner, Sperry, Eifert and Detweiler, (2002) presenting
the successful adoption of ACT techniques to AN for which treatment results from other
therapies (such as CBT and Interpersonal Therapy) have not been as promising as they
have with BN. Heffner et al, (2002) concluded that with parental support, rapport, and
other standard cognitive-behavioural techniques ACT techniques were successfully
incorporated into a behavioural treatment for AN.
Interestingly, Heffner et al (2002) reported that although the treatment was considered
successful, body dissatisfaction remained. It was emphasised that the treatment goal was
not to eliminate body dissatisfaction, but to accept thoughts and feelings of body
dissatisfaction and refocus toward achieving chosen goals. Thus, although the patient was
not satisfied with her body, she was able to resume a healthy lifestyle in spite of weightrelated
thoughts and feelings. This was supported in this study as body image acceptance
was not associated with an overweight BMI. This is an important difference between the
CBT perspective and ACT, therefore a consideration of body image and mood disorders
is warranted.
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