Combining mindfulness and ACT to learn how to manage emotions and to engage in valued activities: Assessment of the feasibility of a training group and its efficiency

BACKGROUND Managing painful emotions could be an issue for a lot of adults. Indeed, learning how to manage painful emotions is an often-requested demand in psychotherapy. Mindfulness-based programs and acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) offer useful tools which aim to guide in this learning process. ACT also provide guidelines to engage in valued activities. In order to help community adults to manage their painful emotions and to engage themselves in valued activities, we offer training group cycles combining tools of mindfulness-based programs and ACT. This study aims to assess the feasibility of such training groups and their efficiency. METHODS A longitudinal design with three assessment-times (T0, T1 and T2) is employed. Participants to the training group attend to three three-hours training sessions on a six-weeks period. They are assessed before the training sessions (T0), directly after (T1) and at three-months follow-up (T2). Questionnaires assess these variables: sociodemographic data, mood, mindfulness, psychological flexibility, cognitive coping strategies and behavioural activation. Student t tests for paired samples are conducted. RESULTS Fifty-four adults participated to four training cycles (the cycles are all identical). Until now, 28 participants (21 women) completed the T0 and the T1 (mean age = 41.43, SD = 11.83). Student t test indicate a significant decrease of depression (t(25) = 4.53, p < 0,001), anxiety (t(25) = 6.23, p < 0.001) and non-adaptive cognitive coping strategies (t(24) = 3.76, p < 0.001). Student t test also indicate a significant increase in mindfulness (t(26) = -3.87, p < 0.001), psychological flexibility (t(26)) = -5.48, p < 0.001) and behavioural activation (t(26) = -4.86, p < 0.001). DISCUSSION Preliminary results indicate the feasibility of training groups combining tools of mindfulness-based programs and ACT. Results show a decrease in several variables (depression, anxiety and non-adaptive cognitive coping strategies) and an increase in other variables (mindfulness, psychological flexibility and behavioural activation). These results seem to indicate that participants benefit from the training groups. Data collection is still ongoing and a control group (waiting-list) is currently being composed. Results and clinical implications will be further discussed during the congress.