How To Use The Choice Point In Acceptance And Commitment Therapy ACT

############################# Video Source: www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TjmbeDP59A

The choice point is a tool used in Acceptance and Commitment therapy, also known as ACT. It was developed by Ann Ann Bailey, Joe Ciarrochi and Russ Harris. It’s a simple tool used to conceptualise a problem, set an agenda for a psychological therapy session, establish therapy goals and to raise self-awareness. • On the diagram you can see there are arrows labelled ‘away’ and ‘towards’. The ‘Away’ arrow means moving away from the person you want to be or moving away from the life you want to build. These are things that make life worse in the long term. The ‘towards’ arrow means behaving like the person you want to be and moving towards the life you want to live. These things will make life better in the long term. • 🔵 WORK WITH ME • If you'd like to work with Teresa, or a member of the Lewis Psychology team, please click on the links below: • ☐ Lewis Psychology CIC (for face to face therapy): https://www.lewispsy.org.uk • ☐ Lewis Psychology Online (for online therapy): https://lewispsyonline.co.uk • 🔵 CHAPTERS • 0:00 What is the ACT Choice Point • 0:48 Situation, thoughts and feelings • 1:17 Away moves • 1:49 Towards moves • 🔵 BOOK RECOMMENDATIONS • ☐ Get Out of Your Mind and into Your Life: The New Acceptance and Commitment Therapy By Steven Hayes and Spencer Smith. https://amzn.to/3Dns61y • ☐ The Happiness Trap by Russ Harris. https://amzn.to/3Dp9i20 • ☐ Trauma Focused ACT by Russ Harris. https://amzn.to/3jiMN8k • 🔵 CHOICE POINT AWAY MOVES • Let look at an example, Malcolm has an important work presentation coming up but he is avoiding preparing for it. He has thoughts of: I can’t do it. I’m not clever enough and I’ll make a mistake. He feels anxious and has started initiating arguments with his wife and drinking too much alcohol. Malcolms psychological therapist asks him to write the situation and his thoughts and feelings, at the bottom of the worksheet. • Malcolm and his therapist then start to map his away moves. Malcolm writes: avoiding preparing for the presentation, initiating arguments with my wife, drinking too much alcohol and spending a lot of time worrying about the presentation. Now I want to stress that away moves are not not about moving away from painful or difficult thoughts and feelings. Away moves are about moving away from your values or away from the person you want to be. • 🔵 CHOICE POINT TOWARDS MOVES • Malcolm and his therapist then explore his ‘towards’ moves. The therapist helps him identify his values, what really matters and what sort of person he wants to be. He is also asked to consider the actions that would help him to change his situation for the better. Malcolm writes: focus on my work, talk calmly with my wife, drink alcohol moderately, see my friends more and start exercising again. He also identifies it would be helpful to learn skills to unhook from his difficult thoughts and feelings. • This section is usually the hardest to complete. People are generally very good at describing their problematic thoughts, feelings and behaviours but often find it challenging to identify their values or helpful actions. Being able to see his situation visually mapped out enables Malcolm to recognise that it not his thoughts and emotions that have created his problems. His problems have been created by fusing with his thoughts and emotions which then hook him into away moves. Therefore the antidote is to learn to unhook from thoughts and emotions and engage in towards moves. I’m aware a lot of problems are more complex than Malcolms but the choice point can enable you to have a clear sense of the values that you wish to live by and to translate those values into committed action. • 🔵 ABOUT TERESA LEWIS • Teresa Lewis is the founder and Director of Lewis Psychology and a Senior Accredited psychotherapist with the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (MBACP Snr. Accred). Qualified in 1995, Teresa has been providing counselling and psychotherapy treatment for nearly 30 years. Teresa holds a masters degree in counselling and psychotherapy and is a qualified EMDR Practitioner having completed training accredited with EMDR Europe. Teresa is also a qualified adult educator and an accredited Mindfulness teacher As a recognised expert in her field Teresa is frequently asked to conduct editorial reviews and endorse counselling and psychotherapy books for international publishing houses. • ☐ Email: [email protected] • ☐ Buy Me A Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/lewispsy... • 🔵 GRAPHICS AND THUMBNAIL • Thumbnail and B-Roll graphics designed by Teresa Lewis. B-Roll video is used in strict compliance with the appropriate permissions and licenses required from Pexels.com and Canva.com in accordance with the YouTube Partner Program, Community guidelines and YouTube terms of service. • #LewisPsychology

#############################

New on site