ACT: Taking Hurt to Hope – JoAnne Dahl Web Talk Radio

Welcome to ACT taking hurt to hope. Today, in our final program we are going to continue to talk about prosocial behavior. Remember that Prosocial behaviors are those intended to help other people. Prosocial behavior is characterized by a concern about the rights, feelings and welfare of other people. Behaviors that can be described as prosocial include feeling empathy and concern for others and behaving in ways to help or benefit other people. One of the 6 key processes in ACT is valuing. We have found that it is often quite difficult to ask people what makes them happy or what does a person value. It is quite difficult to find empathy for oneself. On the other hand it is quite easy for a person to feel empathy for others and know instinctively how to help another even using minimal language. This program hopefully will bring some insight into how prosocial behavior may be the quickest path to values when working with ACT.

Our guest today is none other that Dr Steven Hayes is Foundation Professor and Director of Clinical Training at the Department of Psychology at the University of Nevada Reno, NV. An author of over 35 books and over 500 scientific articles, his career has focused on an analysis of the nature of human language and cognition and the application of this to the understanding and alleviation of human suffering. You can read more about Steve’s work, his many books and current trainings around the world at www.stevenchayes.com.

Welcome to ACT taking hurt to hope. Today Iwould like to take up the concept of prosocial behavior. What it is, how is can be trained and what kind of effects it has for us as individuals and as a group, as a nation and on our earth. Prosocial behavior is defined as voluntary behavior intended to benefit another. A social behavior that benefits other people or as a society as a whole. such as helping, sharing donating co-operating and volunteering.These efforts may be motivated by empathy and by concern about the welfare and rights of others or by more selfish desires for example to develop oneself. A recent article in Health Psychology called Motives for Volunteering are associate with Mortality Risk in Older Adults suggest that it is the motive for volunteers that has health promoting effects not simply the behavior of volunteering. Those who volunteered for more self centered reasons for example to benefits themselves had no significant effects on stress and early mortality figures whereas those who volunteered with the motive of simply wanting to help gained greater protective for the harmful effects of stress.

Our guest today is a pioneer researcher Profess or David Sloan Wilson within evolutionary biology who has in recent years worked together with Steve Hayes in training Prosocial behavior.

David Sloan Wilson is SUNY Distinguished Professor of Biology and Anthropology at Binghamton University. He uses evolution to understand and improve the human condition in addition to his fundamental contributions to evolutionary theory. He directs several programs that expand evolution beyond the biological sciences in higher education (EvoS), public policy (The Evolution Institute), and community-based research (The Binghamton Neighborhood Project). His books include Darwin’s Cathedral: Evolution, Religion, and the Nature of Society (2002), Evolution for Everyone: How Darwin’s Theory Can Change the Way We Think About Our Lives (2007), and The Neighborhood Project: Using Evolution to Improve My City, One Block at a Time (2011), which won the Books for a Better Life Award in the “green” category in 2012.

Welcome to ACT taking hurt to hope. Today we are going to talk about the challenging side of caring for others who are at times acting out and acting aggressively towards the caregiver. Several recent studies have shown that caring for others provides resilience to the damaging effects of stress on the heart, for example. But there is also a dark side. This actually has a name

Caregiver syndrome or caregiver stress is a condition of exhaustion, anger, rage, or guilt that results from caring for a dependent who acts agressively towards the caregiver.. Almost 66 million Americans are providing care to those that are ill, aged, and/or disabled for an average of 39.2 hours per week. Caregiver syndrome is acute when caring for an individual with behavioral difficulties, Typical symptoms of the caregiver include: fatigue, insomnia, stomach complaints, and so on with the most common symptom being depression. Due to the deterioration (both physical and mental) of these caregivers, health professionals have given this a name, Caregiver Syndrome.

Our guest today is Dr Thomas Szabo. Thomas is the director of research and development at Easter Seals in Southern California.

According to an article in the British Medical Bulletin, When people migrate from one nation or culture to another they carry their knowledge and expressions of distress with them. On settling down in the new culture, their cultural identity is likely to change and that encourages a degree of belonging; they also attempt to settle down by either assimilation or biculturalism

Migration is a process of social change where an individual, alone or accompanied by others, because of one or more reasons of economic betterment, political upheaval, education or other purposes, leaves one geographical area for prolonged stay or permanent settlement in another geographical area. It must be emphasized that migration is not only a trans-national process but can also be rural–urban.

Any such process involves not only leaving social networks behind (which may or may not be well established) but also includes experiencing at first a sense of loss, dislocation, alienation and isolation, which will lead to processes of acculturation. A series of factors in the environment combined with levels of stress, the ability to deal with stress, and the ability to root oneself according to one’s personality traits, will produce either a sense of settling down or a sense of feeling isolated and alienated.

In a classic study, Ödegaard1 reported that the rates of schizophrenia among Norwegians who had migrated to the USA were higher when compared with Norwegians who had stayed back in Norway. This study set the standard for further studies comparing rates of schizophrenia and other psychiatric illnesses as well as for comparing those who had migrated and those who had been left behind or who had not chosen to migrate. it can be argued that the process of migration, sense of dislocation and alienation must contribute to the stress on the individuals and their families even though their experiences of alienation and dislocation will be different both at individual and group levels. Several studies in the UK have demonstrated high rates of schizophrenia among the migrant groups especially African–Caribbeans in the UK. There seems to be a consensus that people who have migrated show more psychological stress symptoms than those who stay home. And it would seem that people who migrate need alot of psychological flexibility to adapt to new culture, new language new social rules.

It would seem that ACT has an excellent model of helping people to adapt to a new country. My guest today is Dr Andrew Gloster is an research scientist at the department of psychology at the University on Basel in Switzerland.

Who you think you are might be more important than you think. Usually we use the term self in general to refer to how you think about or perceive yourself. To be aware of oneself is to have a concept of oneself. How you define yourself, your beliefs, your values, your limits and so on predicts your behavior. The problem with this is that we all have the tendency to stereotype ourselves and others which naturally restricts and limits us. It is therefore very important that we listen carefully to how we are defining ourselves. Who we think we are is important not because these statements are true but because they may be our greatest obstacle to personal development.

Today you are going to meet an expert on this subject: Dr Matthieu Villatte is Assistant Professor - Clinical Psychology at the University of Louisiana. He is also the Associate Editor - Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science

Welcome to ACT taking hurt to hope. Today we are going to continue our series on ACT and Health issues and talk about cancer.

Breast cancer.

Breast cancer is a type of cancer originating from breast tissue, most commonly from the inner lining of milk ducts. Worldwide, breast cancer accounts for 22.9% of all cancers. Prognosis and survival rates for breast cancer vary greatly depending on the cancer type, stage, treatment, and geographical location of the patient. Survival rates in the Western world are high;[6] for example, more than 8 out of 10 women (85%) in England diagnosed with breast cancer survive for at least 5 years.[8] In developing countries, however, survival rates are much poorer.

Today you will get a chance to listen to how ACT can be used to help women struggling with breast cancer. My guest today is Dr Jen Gregg.

Jen is a
-Clinical psychologist and associate professor at San Jose State University.
-ACT trainer, therapist, and researcher who began studying ACT with Steve Hayes nearly 20 years ago