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The Art and Science of Valuing in Psychotherapy: Helping Clients Discover, Explore, and Commit to Valued Action Using Acceptance and Commitment Therapy
Valuing is central to acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), yet few therapists truly understand how to engage clients in this complex process. Questions such as What is the purpose of my life? and How do I make decisions? are difficult to answer honestly for ourselves, let alone share with another person. The Art and Science of Valuing in Psychotherapy is the mental health practitioner's complete guide to helping clients identify their values and apply them to their lives in practical ways. You will also learn to establish your own values as a professional, which may shift from client to client, and act in accordance with these values in therapy.
The book provides you with practical tools for conducting values work, including easy-to-understand metaphors, defusion exercises, guided imagery exercises, scripts for role play, client worksheets, assessment quizzes, and more. Once you've mastered the art and science of valuing, you'll find out just how broad the applications for values work can be for conceptualization and interventions in the workplace, in organizations, and on the community level, and discover how effective values work can be for tapping into your clients' capacity for change.
[The Art and Science of Valuing in Psychotherapy] will illuminate how a focus on values can inform every aspect of psychotherapy, from case conceptualization to the therapeutic relationship. At once accessible and profound… highly recommended.
-Steven C. Hayes, Ph.D., University of Nevada Foundation Professor of Psychology at the University of Nevada, Reno
The book provides you with practical tools for conducting values work, including easy-to-understand metaphors, defusion exercises, guided imagery exercises, scripts for role play, client worksheets, assessment quizzes, and more. Once you've mastered the art and science of valuing, you'll find out just how broad the applications for values work can be for conceptualization and interventions in the workplace, in organizations, and on the community level, and discover how effective values work can be for tapping into your clients' capacity for change.
[The Art and Science of Valuing in Psychotherapy] will illuminate how a focus on values can inform every aspect of psychotherapy, from case conceptualization to the therapeutic relationship. At once accessible and profound… highly recommended.
-Steven C. Hayes, Ph.D., University of Nevada Foundation Professor of Psychology at the University of Nevada, Reno
256 pages, Hardcover
First published July 1, 2009
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
July 1, 2009
A problem was described as a tug-of-war between you and what you are struggling with. By fighting with it, and trying to find ways to fight better or more effectively with it, you are giving it power. And it will grow, until it is stronger. In a tug of war, the best way to end the war is to drop the rope. This ends the struggle, and therefore the war. This is not to say there aren't things in the world or causes worth fighting for, but that you should not and really cannot fight with your mind or emotions. You should accept them, internalize them, recognize them as a part of you and what you are really thinking and feeling.
The best way to defeat the problem is to accept that you have the problem you feel the emotions and you are having these thoughts - and not let it interfere with what you choose to do with your day. This is not to say you avoid feeling the problem, or that you ignore the problem and hope it goes away. You take the time to feel the stress, feel the emotion and let it do it's worst - and then after it is done, you go ahead and do what you have committed to do anyway. If in trying to do what you committed to do the emotions come up again, stop. Take more time to feel them, understand where they are coming from and the message they are trying to give. And when you have fully felt and understood them, start fulfilling your commitments. Don't give them the power to change what you have decided to do.
The best way to defeat the problem is to accept that you have the problem you feel the emotions and you are having these thoughts - and not let it interfere with what you choose to do with your day. This is not to say you avoid feeling the problem, or that you ignore the problem and hope it goes away. You take the time to feel the stress, feel the emotion and let it do it's worst - and then after it is done, you go ahead and do what you have committed to do anyway. If in trying to do what you committed to do the emotions come up again, stop. Take more time to feel them, understand where they are coming from and the message they are trying to give. And when you have fully felt and understood them, start fulfilling your commitments. Don't give them the power to change what you have decided to do.
August 26, 2021
A great introduction to ACT approaching from the direction of values.
I found the writing style a bit academic, but technically I suppose it is a psychology textbook. The case studies included helped clarify the concepts, and the authors were careful to state things more plainly when a lot of jargon was used to introduce a concept.
I am not a psychotherapist but I find ACT fascinating. It includes a lot of worksheets therapists can use in session and as homework which the average person exploring their own values and actions can use to help clarify workable behaviors.
I found the writing style a bit academic, but technically I suppose it is a psychology textbook. The case studies included helped clarify the concepts, and the authors were careful to state things more plainly when a lot of jargon was used to introduce a concept.
I am not a psychotherapist but I find ACT fascinating. It includes a lot of worksheets therapists can use in session and as homework which the average person exploring their own values and actions can use to help clarify workable behaviors.
May 26, 2013
I am not a psychotherapist but I found this book extremly helpful in understanding the values concept in ACT.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews