Acceptance and Commitment Therapy is feasible for people with acquired brain injury: A process evaluation of the BrainACT treatment.
Johanne Cc Rauwenhoff, Yvonne Bol, Frenk Peeters and 1 others
PMID 38099720WHAT IT FOUND
Most people with brain injury found BrainACT therapy helpful for coping with emotions and thoughts.
They liked the clear structure and metaphors, but some found it hard to sustain skills after treatment ended. Therapists felt the sessions were too packed.
Key findings
0126 of 27 participants reported the therapy helped them cope better with negative emotions, though 7 noted difficulty sustaining these skills after treatment ended.
02Therapists delivered 75% of the planned protocol elements, often skipping content due to time constraints, and added their own metaphors in 13% of sessions.
03Video-conferencing saved travel energy but was tiring and made it harder to connect with the therapist; face-to-face sessions were preferred by most.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
Read the rest of this summary
You get three full summaries a month, free, and we do not ask for a card. Search, the TL;DRs and your library stay unlimited either way.
What it does not show
This is a process evaluation, not an effectiveness trial; it reports on feasibility and experience, not clinical outcomes. The study was conducted during COVID-19 lockdowns, which may have influenced preferences for face-to-face therapy and fatigue levels. Only 27 of 36 allocated participants were interviewed, so the views of those who did not participate or drop out are not represented. Compliance with the protocol was 75%, which is below the typical 80% threshold for fidelity, meaning the intervention delivered differed from the intended model.
Declared interests
The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest. The work was supported by ZonMw (grant number 636310003).
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret this as evidence that BrainACT reduces anxiety or depression symptoms. This paper evaluates whether the therapy was feasible and liked, not whether it was effective. The primary outcome of the parent trial is not reported here.