Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) with a learning disabled young person experiencing anxious and obsessive thoughts

Abstract

This case study describes how the ACT model was adapted to treat anxious and obsessive thoughts in a young person with moderate/severe learning disabilities. Using mindfulness and ACT-based experiential activities, the client learned to notice her thoughts and distance herself from their literal content. The negative impact that the client’s anxious thoughts had on her life was reduced and she was able to return to a part-time college course. The article describes how the client engaged with some ACT-based activities, such as mindfulness and defusion exercises. The outcome suggests that the experiential, activity-based nature of ACT may offer a more accessible intervention model for learning disabled people than traditional CBT models based on verbal reasoning skills. However, the intervention also required considerable individual adaptation and it is likely that this will be the case in work with people with learning disabilities.