Eleventh International Conference on Health, Wellness & Society

Abstract

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) has been developed among other therapies that aim to emphasize elements such as acceptance, mindfulness, cognitive deactivation, dialectics, values, spirituality, and relationships (Hayes, 2004). One of the tools proposed in this therapeutic process is cognitive defusion, which consists of weakening the control that thought exercises over our behaviour, with special emphasis on distinguishing thought from “reality” itself. By transferring the concept to a person, we could evaluate how the behaviours that this person elaborates with respect to a part of his/her life, a specific event or the perception of him/herself, will be denoted by beliefs, learning, ideas, and images. Based on this premise, the work carried out aims to assess the visual component associated with thoughts and how working from the images themselves can reinforce the work of cognitive defusion. This possibility of work is especially interesting in a highly visual society with a level of information that is, most of the time, excessive, to be managed consciously and in which there are more and more pathologies and disorders associated with self-concept and self-image. Thus, the work of acceptance from the questioning and design of non-normative images can be an effective tool in the management of low situational self-esteem (as a nursing diagnosis associated with various types of patients).