Semester

Summer

Date of Graduation

2021

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Type

PhD

College

College of Education and Human Services

Department

Counseling, Rehabilitation Counseling & Counseling Psychology

Committee Chair

Jeffrey Daniels

Committee Co-Chair

Edward Baker

Committee Member

Richard Gross

Committee Member

Lisa Platt

Abstract

Chronic pain affects one in every four persons (NIH, 2010). For individuals residing in rural communities where chronic pain treatment is often not accessible (Artnak et al., 2011), a one-session brief mental health intervention is a critical healthcare need. More specifically, acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) for chronic pain is a novel treatment approach in need of more research (Society of Clinical Psychology, 2016). This current study contributes to the gap in the literature by implementing an ACT workshop in a rural healthcare setting for individuals with chronic pain. It was hypothesized that the workshop would increase adaptive coping mechanisms such as total pain acceptance, activity engagement, and pain willingness. Additionally, it was hypothesized that the workshop would decrease pain catastrophizing post-workshop. Nineteen participants completed pre- and four-week post-workshop questionnaires. The results of this study indicated that those who attended the workshop reported higher total pain acceptance and pain willingness as measured by the CPAQ-R (McCracken et al., 2004). There were no significant results for pain catastrophizing and activity engagement. A majority of the participants who attended the workshop and completed the follow-up questionnaires reported satisfaction with the group and would refer their family and friends to a similar workshop. Future recommendations are aimed at increasing intervention repertoire and providing insight on group composition and workshop layout.

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