Group-based acceptance and commitment therapy to enhance graduate student psychological flexibility: Treatment development and preliminary implementation evaluation

Abstract

Objective: Graduate student mental health is a growing concern and the need for interventions is well-documented. This manuscript outlines an Acceptance and Commitment Therapy group treatment for graduate students intended to promote psychological flexibility through the cultivation of six processes: contact with the present moment (mindfulness), freely chosen life direction (values), distance from thoughts (defusion), nonjudgmental acknowledgement of one’s internal experiences (acceptance), meta-awareness of one’s own experiences (self-as-context), and ongoing patterns of behavior in the service of values (committed action). Participants: The treatment was delivered to graduate students across academic disciplines with variable psychological concerns over several semesters. Method: Graduate students completed measures of preliminary acceptability. Results: Clients perceived the intervention positively and believed they benefited from participating. Conclusion: Treatment evaluation information support the social validity and acceptability of the treatment and justify future studies assessing treatment efficacy and effectiveness.

Keywords:

• Acceptance and commitment therapy
• counseling
• graduate school
• group therapy

Conflict of interest disclosure

The authors have no conflicts of interest to report. The authors confirm that the research presented in this article met the ethical guidelines, including adherence to the legal requirements of United States and was determined not to meet the definition of human subjects research by the University of Memphis Institutional Review Board. Thus, the work, which is a program evaluation, did not require IRB approval.

Additional information

Funding

No funding was used to support this research and/or the preparation of the manuscript.