In plain language
Everyone eventually faces existential crises: serious illness, the death of loved ones, job loss, mistreatment, relationship breakdown, and ultimately the finality of death. These moments can shatter our sense of meaning. This book chapter asks how we can face such moments with honesty and courage, embrace the distress they bring, and create new meaning — in the authors’ framing, how we can answer “Yes” to Camus’ question, “Is life worth living?”
The chapter first offers a theory of how the very abilities that make us human — language and self-awareness — can lead us into existential crisis, because we are hardwired to anticipate danger and can torture ourselves with imagined futures and lost pasts. It then presents an evidence-based account of how Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), organised through the DNA-V model (Discoverer, Noticer, Advisor, and Valuer, together with self-view and social view), can help. Each part of the model is mapped to a distinct kind of existential crisis: crises of meaning, of incoherence and shattered reality, of alienation from the body and emotions, of inertia and action, of identity, and of isolation and loneliness.
Drawing on the research literature, the authors describe how ACT helps people recreate coherence after a coherence-shattering event, reconnect with their bodies and feelings rather than avoid them, overcome inertia, transform a sense of self that feels empty or self-destroying, and build genuine connection with others. The chapter offers clinicians and readers a practical, research-grounded bridge between existential philosophy and modern behavioural therapy.
Key findings
- Provides a theory of how language and self-awareness — distinctly human capacities — can lead people into existential crisis and loss of meaning.
- Maps the DNA-V model of ACT (Discoverer, Noticer, Advisor, Valuer, plus self-view and social view) onto six kinds of existential crisis: meaning, incoherence, alienation from the body, inertia, identity, and isolation.
- Reviews evidence that ACT is beneficial across problems such as chronic pain, depression, and mixed anxiety, supporting its use for existential concerns.
- Argues that psychological flexibility — shifting between psychological spaces rather than rigidly avoiding pain — is the key skill for confronting coherence-shattering events.
- Describes how ACT helps people recreate coherence after crisis, overcome alienation from the body, overcome inertia, transform an empty or self-destroying sense of self, and bridge the gulf between self and others.
- Frames ACT as an evidence-based way to answer “Yes” to Camus’ most important philosophical question: “Is life worth living?”
How to cite
APA
Ciarrochi, J., Hayes, L., Quinlen, G., Sahdra, B., Ferrari, M., & Yap, K. (2022). Letting go, creating meaning: The role of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy in helping people confront existential concerns and lead a vital life. In R. G. Menzies, R. E. Menzies, & G. A. Dingle (Eds.), Existential concerns and cognitive-behavioral procedures (pp. 283–302). Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-06932-1_17
BibTeX
@incollection{ciarrochi2022letting,
author = {Ciarrochi, Joseph and Hayes, Louise and Quinlen, Gareth and Sahdra, Baljinder and Ferrari, Madeleine and Yap, Keong},
title = {Letting Go, Creating Meaning: The Role of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy in Helping People Confront Existential Concerns and Lead a Vital Life},
booktitle = {Existential Concerns and Cognitive-Behavioral Procedures},
editor = {Menzies, Ross G. and Menzies, Rachel E. and Dingle, Genevieve A.},
publisher = {Springer},
year = {2022},
pages = {283--302},
doi = {10.1007/978-3-031-06932-1_17}
}
Related work
- All publications by Joseph Ciarrochi (searchable, with free PDFs)
- Process-Based Therapy & Idionomic Analysis
Author: Joseph Ciarrochi (ORCID 0000-0003-0471-8100). Free copy hosted with permission for scholarly use. Please cite the published version via the DOI above.