Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for Depression in Veterans: Therapist Manual
U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs · 2012 · 132 pages · For therapists treating depression with ACT
Read it at the official source
A public domain VA publication. The VA has retired its original download page, so the link goes to the Walter Reed medical library's hosted copy; the archived VA original is below.
If the publisher link moves: archived copy
A complete 12-session ACT protocol for treating depression, written by Robyn Walser and colleagues for the VA's national therapist training program. Each session includes therapist scripts, sample dialogue, metaphors, mindfulness exercises, and homework, moving from creative hopelessness and control-as-the-problem through acceptance, defusion, values, and committed action.
The appendices add a metaphor and exercise library, a case conceptualization form, homework sheets, and the AAQ-II. It assumes some familiarity with ACT and sits alongside the VA's CBT-D and IPT manuals in the same evidence-based psychotherapy series.
Run it with these materials
The Choice Point worksheet is a one-page map of the workability question this manual returns to every session, and the creative hopelessness, defusion, and values worksheets mirror its session arc.
This manual is a publication of U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. Therapy Resource is not affiliated with, or endorsed by, its publisher. The summary above is our own; always follow the manual itself and your clinical judgment. If you are in crisis, contact 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline or call 911.