A Preliminary Evaluation of an Acceptance and Commitment Therapy Based Program for Adult Congenital Heart Disease Patients.

The READY (Resilience for Everyday) intervention was developed by Drs Pakenham and Burton at The University of Queensland (Burton et al., 2010; 2009). The program utilses an Acceptance and Commitment Therapy modality (ACT). ACT (Hayes et al., 2011) is a “third wave” cognitive behavioural therapy based on mindfulness and acceptance processes (Hayes, Luoma, Bond, Masuda & Lillis, 2006). ACT uses six interrelated core therapeutic processes: (1) acceptance - the active and aware embrace of internal experiences without changing their frequency or form, (2) cognitive defusion – observing thoughts rather than taking them literally, (3) contact with the present moment - ongoing non-judgmental and responsive awareness of present moment, (4) self-as context - awareness of one’s own flow of experiences without attachment to them, (5) values – freely chosen verbally constructed and personally meaningful life directions, (6) committed action – values-guided effective action. Further, application of these processes to the practitioner’s own psychology is critical to keeping “his or her therapeutic instrument in tune” (Luoma, Hayes & Walser, 2007). Early evidence suggests that ACT is more effective than control conditions, and that ACT constructs are correlated with better mental and physical health outcomes in a variety of populations including people with chronic medical conditions (for reviews see Hayes, & Masuda et al., 2004; Hayes et al., 2006; Powers, Zum Vorde Sive Vording & Emmelkamp, 2009; Ruiz, 2010).The READY (Resilience for Everyday) program aims to improve an individual’s resilience protective factors identified from empirical literature (i.e. positive emotions, cognitive flexibility, social support, life meaning, and active coping) (Southwick et al, 2005). The strengthening of these protective factors builds resilience towards stress and adversity and improves QoL (Burton et al., 2010). The READY program in total is 5 sessions and includes one session per week, over a 5 week period. The first session is a 2 hour group session, and the 4 subsequent sessions are over the phone. Telephone consultations last 1 hour each. The READY program is delivered by psychologists or provisionally registered psychologists who are currently completing postgraduate training and who receive supervision from an accredited supervisor.