What happens after five years?: The long-term effects of a four-session Acceptance and Commitment Therapy delivered by student therapists for depressive symptoms

Brief interventions can be viable treatment options worth consideration in addressing the growing need for treatments of subclinical and clinical depressive symptoms. However, there is uncertainty regarding the long-term benefits of these interventions. The aim was to examine the long-term (5-year) effects of a 4-session Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) intervention for low mood delivered by novice therapists in order to see whether lasting effects could be achieved cost-effectively with four intervention sessions. Originally, 57 self-referred clients were randomized into two groups: an intervention group and a waiting-list control group which received treatment later. The groups wer…

A 4-session student given acceptance and commitment therapy for depression : efficacy and therapeutic processes

A four-session acceptance and commitment therapy based intervention for depressive symptoms delivered by masters degree level psychology students: a preliminary study.

Background:Depressive symptoms are one of the main reasons for seeking psychological help. Shorter interventions using briefly trained therapists could offer a solution to the ever-rising need for early and easily applicable psychological treatments.Aims:The current study examines the effectiveness of a four-session Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) based treatment for self-reported depressive symptoms administered by Masters level psychology students.Method:This paper reports the effectiveness of a brief intervention compared to a waiting list control (WLC) group. Participants were randomized into two groups: ACT (n= 28) and waiting list (n= 29). Long-term effects were examined using…

ACTing for depressive symptoms : a longitudinal study of a brief 4-session acceptance- and value-based intervention for symptoms of depression

The main objective of this study was to investigate a brief 4-session intervention based on a theoretical framework of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), and to explore its short- and long-term effectiveness among individuals reporting depressive symptoms. Additionally, the research aimed at further exploring the elements of psychological flexibility and mindfulness associated with improvements in depressive symptoms. The dissertation comprises three studies. Study I investigated the effectiveness of the brief intervention compared to a waiting-list control group. In total, 57 participants were randomized into either the ACT intervention (n = 28) or the waiting-list control (WLC; n = …