Search

Self-narration is a typical skill of human beings, whatever the verbal community to which they belong, and the awareness that self and one's behaviour derives from it plays a fundamental role in their lives. In any form of psychotherapy, personal background is, moreover, a crucial element for understanding an individual's experience and how this can become a source of suffering over time. But how does an individual's relationship with their history affect their psychological well-being and interaction with the community in which they live? What is it in the biographical history of a human being who has acquired the ability to think and speak that determines whether that person will live with self-esteem or constant suffering? Since the dawn of psychology, all explanatory models have been concerned with conceptualising what is called the «I» or «Self». As a result of the experimental and applied heritage of behavioural analysis, the beginning of our century witnessed the development of the relational frame theory (RFT). Placing the ability to derive relationships between stimuli or events at the heart of human language and cognition, as RFT explains, allows the clinician to better understand complex human behaviours and to identify the environmental variables (internal and external) that are sources of suffering, and influence them. This article aims:(a) to present the RFT perspective on the development of the repertoire of the Self; (b) to illustrate the stimulating functions of the descriptions that an individual emits about their own patterns of actions, responsible for flexibility or contrary to psychological inflexibility; (c) to provide useful information on the application that can be integrated with acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT). This integration need not be limited to ACT but can include other psychotherapy models, not exclusively cognitive-behavioural ones, in order to intervene on the processes that are commonly labelled with the term «Self». [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Virtual Reality Exposure Therapy (VRET) is an effective treatment option for several psychological disorders, whose effectiveness has been proved both in clinical studies, and meta-analyses, the most effective results being in anxiety disorders. However, research on the efficacy of VRET in dealing with covert behaviour or private events as thoughts, feelings, and physiological responses is still lacking. The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of a Virtual Reality (VR) mediated defusion technique on distress and believability associated to a thought. The procedure involved eight participants who entered a single-subject alternating treatment design (ATD), in which two treatments [VR Defusion and Distraction] were alternated amongst participants. Results showed that both distress (Cohen's d = 1.82) and believability (Cohen's d = 1.98) of problematic thoughts were reduced by the VR defusion condition. Furthermore, defusion seemed to produce better outcomes than distraction. In conclusion, the results suggest the potential use of VR defusion for the treatment of disturbing thoughts. Future research should investigate the effectiveness of VR defusion on a clinical population in order to integrate this technique into an Acceptance and Therapy Commitment (ACT) protocol. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]