Activate Your Life

ACTivate Your Life focuses on helping people to be more open, connected and engaged with their lives, demonstrating how Acceptance Commitment Therapy can be used to tackle a range of problems such as low self-esteem, anxiety, anger and depression, as well as providing skills for life enhancement and self-development.

Readers are encouraged to consider what matters to them and will learn techniques to set life directions based on meaningful values. Readers will also be introduced to mindfulness and learn how to use it in everyday life to connect with their actions, experiences and the people around them. The ACT approach also teaches that it's a normal part of being human to have thoughts and feelings that are unpleasant and the most important thing is to respond effectively when these kinds of experiences arise.

The book is aimed at anyone wanting to enhance their life skills, and character stories are used to demonstrate the spectrum of how they might be employed.

“The human mind does not come with an owner's manual, but this book covers much of what you need to know. It shows how just three critical skills can be cultivated and used that will make a profound difference in your life - addressing problems like depression, anxiety, anger and low self-esteem. Simple and clear, it gives you the tools to move forward, now. - Prof. Steven C. Hayes, co-developer of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and author of Get Out of Your Mind and Into Your Life”

This book is not a magic wand that will effortlessly free you from all of your problems: it invites you to actively participate in what could be hard personal work. Written with great wisdom and expertise, but also from a place of compassion and full of our common humanity, Oliver, Hill & Morris have placed in your hands a supremely practical resource for changing how you approach your life, and building a more meaningful and fully-lived existence. - Dr. David Gillanders, Academic Director, Doctoral Programme in Clinical Psychology, University of Edinburgh Destined to become an ACT self-help classic, ACTivate Your Life provides a witty and charming delivery of ACT concepts that brings the reader along in a compassionate and gentle style. The examples are easy to identify with and the exercises well-timed. A great way to be introduced to the ACT model and an excellent contribution from creative and influential authors in the ACT field. - Dr. Louise McHugh, Lecturer in the School of Psychology, University College Dublin and author of The Self & Perspective Taking This outstanding new book allows you to use the ACT approach to bring a greater sense of meaning, purpose, and vitality into your own life right now. This is an excellent resource for anyone struggling with anxiety, worry, depression, lack of self-esteem, loss of life direction, or anger issues. However, I want to be bold here and suggest that everyone should read this book. Why? Because it shows how modern psychology views the human condition, and illustrates how to relate skilfully to the strange internal world of thought and emotion that we all experience. - Dr. Paul Flaxman, Senior Lecturer in Psychology, City University London and author of The Mindful and Effective Employee Psychological suffering is inevitably interwoven into human life and this book addresses that simple truth. Although it is only natural to not want to suffer, desperate attempts to blow out the flame of emotional suffering often make it even bigger. ACTivate Your Life proposes how to deal with our vulnerabilities, weaknesses and imperfections without struggle, and teaches us how to meet them with gentleness and self-compassion. The book can be used by everyone as a guide to navigating a wide range of common psychological problems and challenges, such as depression, anxiety, anger and low self-esteem. - Stanislaw Malicki, Senior licensed clinical psychologist and peer-reviewed ACT trainer, Akershus University Hospital, Norway ACT helps me when I'm struggling or having a tough day, and it helps clients I work with too. This book uses new metaphors, reframes 'classic' ACT images and presents realistic examples to explain the concepts in a way that makes them understandable and worth trying. I will recommend this to clients and friends. - Dr. Ben Sedley, clinical psychologist and author of Stuff That Sucks All the latest research and a wealth of clinical experience have gone into this book. Clear, friendly language, fun illustrations and easy to use worksheets cut through the tangle of difficult thoughts and feelings so many people struggle with and allow themselves to be held back by. A state of the art, logical and supportive book that reassures you that you are not a freak for struggling in the first place, helps you identify the unhelpful strategies that drive and maintain your difficulties, builds your resilience and unlocks your potential. - Suzy Dittmar, ACT Therapist, London ACTivate Your Life with this fantastic new self-help book. Based on the revolutionary new therapy - Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) - this comprehensive workbook will help you to effortlessly navigate your way through the challenges in your life and transform it for the better. Whether you simply feel a little stuck or are chronically depressed, the three simple steps (Open, Aware and Active), case studies and worksheets will support you on your journey to enjoying life again. - Dr. Guy Meadows, author of The Sleep Book

Joe Oliver is a clinical psychologist who has been working within the NHS for the past 10 years. He runs a private ACT-based consultancy that offers training, supervision and psychological therapy. He is the co-editor of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy & Mindfulness for Psychosis (2013). Joe is also chair of the national BABCP ACT committee, which promotes and develops ACT within the UK. Jon Hill is a professional coach and trainer who has spent most of his career working with people in addiction. He now coaches individual clients around career progression and change, and delivers training in wellbeing and energy management for organisations in the public and private sector, as well as workshops introducing ACT to the public. Eric Morris works as a consultant clinical psychologist in the NHS, with nearly 20 years' experience of providing contextual cognitive behavioural therapies (including ACT) to individuals, groups and families. He is the co-editor of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy & Mindfulness for Psychosis (2013). Eric is a founder and past chair of the national BABCP ACT committee.

ACTivate Your Life focuses on helping people to be more open, connected and engaged with their lives, demonstrating how Acceptance Commitment Therapy can be used to tackle a range of problems such as low self-esteem, anxiety, anger and depression, as well as providing skills for life enhancement and self-development. Readers are encouraged to consider what matters to them and will learn techniques to set life directions based on meaningful values. Readers will also be introduced to mindfulness and learn how to use it in everyday life to connect with their actions, experiences and the people around them. The ACT approach also teaches that it's a normal part of being human to have thoughts and feelings that are unpleasant and the most important thing is to respond effectively when these kinds of experiences arise. The book is aimed at anyone wanting to enhance their life skills, and character stories are used to demonstrate the spectrum of how they might be employed.

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