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Hi Luis,
Really excellent question. I don’t know if I have all of the answers in this area, but I think you’re right in that to a degree it does depend a bit on the person and the situation.
I think ACT is a really interesting area to explore, and can be a great way to avoid getting into a no-win back and forth dialogue with yourself. Whereas instructional, motivational, and other self-talk have their place in cultivating greater control of our inner mental experience too.
Perhaps one way of thinking of it is that one aspect of self-talk is actively initiating what we say to ourselves and cultivating a more constructive, instructional, and self-enhancing inner voice, with exercises like the Identity Statement. While ACT can be useful as a strategy for more effectively handling the self-defeating thoughts that spontaneously or automatically pop into our head.
Does that make sense?
Noa
