Steven C. Hayes PhD - A Liberated Mind: How to Pivot Toward What Matters

In all my years studying personal growth, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy is one of the most useful tools Ive ever come across, and in this book, Dr. Hayes describes it with more depth and clarity than ever before.

Mark Manson, New York Timesbestselling author of The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck

In our crisis-ridden society psychological flexibility is more needed than ever. Transcending shallow and ineffective behavioral approaches, Dr. Steven Hayes here presents a methodology, a skill-set, for emotional liberation that enables us to pivot from self-limitation to self-awareness and self-affirmative action.

Gabor Mat, MD, author of When the Body Says No: Exploring the Stress-Disease Connection

We can spend our lives avoiding the thoughts and feelings that cause us pain. But Steve Hayes has become a leader in his field by understanding that things that cause us pain are things about which we care. By learning to use psychological flexibility we can turn toward the difficult places to live with richness and meaning. Compassionate, helpful, and authoritative, A Liberated Mind shows us a powerful way to a fulfilling life.

Susan David, PhD, author of Emotional Agility

The key to evolving consciousness is cultivating a flexible mindopen, present, empowered and aligned with deep valuesand Steven Hayes does a brilliant job showing us how. This book is organized around developing six psychological skills that clinical research shows, beyond all other factors, promote flexibility and translate into a happier and healthier life. As you read this illuminating book, youll see how these skills are learnable, that you can start right now, and how when woven together, they offer a path to inner freedom.

Tara Brach, PhD, author of Radical Acceptance and True Refuge

A Liberated Mind provides an outstanding introduction to a psychological approach that has changed many lives by turning us toward focusing on our values. The ideas and advice presented here help us truly understand what matters so that we can live with greater freedom, courage, and joy.

Kelly McGonigal, PhD, author of The Willpower Instinct and The Upside of Stress

Steven Hayes possesses an extraordinary trifecta of skills: A brilliant theoretical and research psychologist, hes also a compassionate clinician and a wonderfully engaging writer. A Liberated Mind is packed with jewels of insight and information that could change the way we deal with suffering as individuals and as a society. A compelling, revelatory read.

Martha Beck, PhD, author of Finding Your Own North Star

Dr. Steven C. Hayes is one of the greatest thinkers, psychological theorists, and clinicians alive. He has contributed an enormous amount to the field of psychology and is well-known for being the creator of ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy), a treatment that has now become the first-line approach for many psychological problems. The book, A Liberated Mind: How to Pivot Toward What Matters, tells a very personal story about the origin and development of this treatment. Written for a very broad audience, Dr. Hayes is able to clearly translate the science and clinical complexity of this treatment into concrete guiding principles for peoples lives. These principles not only apply to psychological suffering, but also to physical illnesses, relationships, corporations, societies, and cultures. The book is honest, compassionate, and profoundly insightful. It will transform your life by liberating your mind.

Stefan G. Hofmann, PhD, professor of psychology at Boston University

In this highly accessible book, Steven Hayes identifies pathways to connecting with our deepest values and pursuing what really matters. Filled with compassion, wisdom, and down-to-earth methods for change, A Liberated Mind is a refreshing how to manual for overcoming the obstacles, judgments, habits, and prejudices that so often stand in the way of a life worth living.

Richard M. Ryan, professor at the Institute for Positive Psychology and Education, Australian Catholic University, and co-developer of Self-Determination Theory

Many of our inborn behavioral tendencies were wonderfully well adapted to the world they evolved in fifty thousand years ago. But disaster ensues when our primitive and automatic impulses inflexibly control us, rather than us flexibly controlling them. Hayes combines a scientists precision with a poets sensitivity in freeing us to be more loving and fully human. This is a great self-help book for people who would never dream of reading a self-help book.

Allen Frances, professor emeritus and former chair at the Duke Department of Psychiatry, chair of the DSM-IV Task Force, and author of Saving Normal

Steve Hayes is a brilliant thinker and doer, and nowhere is this more evident than in this book. It weaves together research and a lifetime of practical experience into an accessible, personal, and positive guide to thinking about our lives in a fundamentally more helpful way.

Kelly D. Brownell, PhD, director of World Food Policy Center and Robert L. Flowers Professor of Public Policy at Duke University

Steven C. Hayes is todays B. F. Skinnera great intellect, equally passionate about basic knowledge and practical applications. In A Liberated Mind, you can get to know him as a person and apply his wisdom to your own life.

David Sloan Wilson, president at The Evolution Institute and author of This View of Life: Completing the Darwinian Revolution

Based on a broad and deep knowledge of cutting-edge psychological science and a wide-ranging appreciation of philosophical and religious wisdoms, one of the leading psychologists in the world, Steven C. Hayes, provides an antidote to the conundrum of human struggle and despair. Everyone experiencing anxiety, depression, or pain in their life and striving for emotional well-being should be aware of the surprising revelations in this well-written and easy-to-read book.

David H. Barlow, professor of psychology and psychiatry emeritus, founder and director emeritus at the Center for Anxiety and Related Disorders, Boston University

an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC

penguinrandomhouse.com

Copyright 2019 by Steven C. Hayes

The copyright for all figures is retained by Steven C. Hayes. They are free to use without additional permission, provided the source is cited.

The closing poem, Hold Out Your Hand, is copyrighted by Julia Fehrenbacher. It is used with permission.

Penguin supports copyright. Copyright fuels creativity, encourages diverse voices, promotes free speech, and creates a vibrant culture. Thank you for buying an authorized edition of this book and for complying with copyright laws by not reproducing, scanning, or distributing any part of it in any form without permission. You are supporting writers and allowing Penguin to continue to publish books for every reader.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data