The Common Sense Model of Self-Regulation and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy: integrating strategies to guide interventions for chronic illness

Abstract

Most health behaviour intervention efforts are adapted from the typical psychological treatment experience and may not take into serious consideration theories specifically developed to describe the process of adaptation to illness. This paper presents a proposal for the combination of a theory about the experience of and adaptation to illness, that is, the Common Sense Model of Self-Regulation (CSM), and an efficient psychological theory and therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). Past combinations of CSM with cognitive or cognitive-behavioural interventions have focussed almost only on specific aspects of this model (mostly, illness representations and action plans) and left out other, equally important for a fruitful adaptation to illness, recommendations of the model (e.g., regarding the system coherence). Therefore, the development of the proposed combination is to try to match a broad array of the CSM aspects with the principles, intervention techniques and methods employed by ACT, in order to produce a ‘double-pillared’ intervention strategy that may prove especially effective for promoting patients’ adaptation to a chronic condition and enhancing their well-being and health.