As the title of this blog suggests, I did indeed read about the "transition stage" of ACT. If this phrasing confuses you, by transition stage, I mean the stage during which someone undergoing ACT would have their neural pathways remolded - technically this isn't a "stage" as this period of time is supposed to last throughout the entire treatment process and beyond. To explain it further and connect this subsection of my paper to the other subsections of my paper (the results section will contain three subsections: Psychological Underpinnings, Neurobiological Underpinnings, and Transition Stage), the "transition stage" will talk about the effects of the psychological underpinnings on the neurobiological underpinnings. For the sake of clarity, I will state the purpose of this subsection another time: the "transition phase" will discuss how the brain changed before and after/during ACT.
Like last week, I will include the introductory paragraph to the mentioned subsection:
The root of ACT's success lays in its emphasis on peaceful teachings and smooth training. Rather than forcefully attempting to enact physical neural change, the therapy allows for the brain to be taught an old way which has been forgotten, or an entirely new way of functioning. Neural pathways are remolded not through trickery or submission, but are instead led towards change through the impact of the six pillars of ACT: acceptance, self-as-context, defusion, values, contact with the present moment, and committed action. Both the patient and the therapist are involved in the transitional stages of therapy, enabling the patient to come to their own conclusions and improve their own quality of life. The therapist acts as a guiding hand rather than a strict enforcer of principles. The psychological aspects of ACT affect the neurobiological aspects, leading to changes in neural pathways; the philosophy behind the therapy causes the physical change seen in patients before and after implementing ACT.
This paragraph is actually unedited so I hope you can forgive any terrible mistakes I may have made...but please do tell me in the comments below if you have any suggestions!
P.S. Gillian (a member of my blog group) turned 18 today so if you want to read about PTSD and mice experiments or even just wish her luck in adulthood you can check out her blog.
P.P.S. Good luck to everyone taking mocks (I hear the AP Psychology mock was today so if any of you took that I hope my blog mentioned something at some point which you found useful)!
