10 Understanding Acceptance and Commitment Therapy in Context A History of Similarities and Differences With Other Cognitive Behavior Therapies KELLY G. WILSON, MICHAEL J. BORDIERI, MAUREEN K. FLYNN, NADIA N. LUCAS, AND REGAN M. SLATER
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy or ACT (said as a word, not as letters) is a contemporary member of the general family of cognitive behavior therapies (CBTs). It is both similar to and different from CBTs that preceded it, just as those therapies are both similar to and different from the behavior therapies (BTs) that preceded them. The CBT movement is, and always has been, multifaceted and evolving. In fact, the name CBT is itself an evolution that arose when the near-ubiquitous attention to cognition among these therapies made CBT a more apt name for them than BT. Ocean waves are apt metaphors for describing the development of CBT, especially in that waves all arise from the same sea. Questions about distinction and discreetness invariably arise in the wake of any new therapy: Is there enough new stuff in it to merit mention, warrant a name, and mark a new chapter in the history of the discipline? As ever, those who believe ACT deserves these distinctions must make the case to their fellows. Ultimately, the community of scientists will decide.
Similarities Among Various CBTs The similarities among various models of CBT can be understood as having three primary sources. First, there is a bond of shared values. What is currently the CBT movement started out as the BT movement, and relatively early on, it also included explicitly cognitive therapies (CTs). A common commitment to a robust empirical basis for clinical psychology united CT and BT, and it distinguished these psychotherapies from the numerous others that were far less interested in systematic data collection. The second and third sources of similarity are sociological. For one thing, the current members of the CBT movement developed in close proximity to one another. 233
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