68. Dr. Russ Harris | ACT: Misconceptions & Innovations

My guest today is Dr. Russ Harris. Russ is a world-renowned trainer of Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT) and author of the international best-selling self-help book The Happiness Trap. 

Since 2005, Russ has run over 700 two-day workshops and provided ACT training for almost 50,000 health professionals. He has authored four ACT textbooks (ACT Made Simple, Trauma Focused ACT, Getting Unstuck in ACT, ACT Questions & Answers), and four ACT-based self-help books (The Happiness Trap, The Reality Slap, The Confidence Gap and ACT with Love). His best-known book, The Happiness Trap, has sold over one million copies worldwide, with translations into more than 30 languages.

Some of the topics we explore in this episode include:
- Perfectionism and productive procrastination
- How the Hexaflex can potentially create unhelpful limitations in ACT
- Broadening acceptance and defusion into emotional and cognitive flexibility 
- How all of the “B” in CBT fits nicely into ACT
- “Flexible selfing” as an alternative to self-as-context 
- ACT supervision
- And misunderstanding the difference between thoughts and thinking