Updated ACT Wheel
For the past few years I’ve been using what I call the ACT Wheel to help me and my clients process their experience. I update the wheel from time to time with new questions as I see fit, and this is the most up-to-date version of the tool. To use this tool, hand the client this sheet and ask them to either remember a situation from the past or to envision a situation in the future. It could be something that they struggled with, or something that was a very positive experience. Start at the top of the wheel and ask them to describe the situation. Then move counter clockwise around the circle until you reach the end. You can alter the tenses of these questions depending on what temporal point of view you’re using. You can also do this from other people’s point of view, for example, by imagining you were your mom, or your best friend, or any other person you know.
Those of you who have read The Essential Guide to The ACT Matrix might be wondering “Isn’t this just Verbal Aikido?” (You can download the Verbal Aikido sheet as a part of the downloadable materials for that book through New Harbinger). I had the same concern when I designed this tool. It does feel very similar at first glance, but the reason I developed this is because the verbal aikido exercise wasn’t cutting it for me or the people I was working with. The main difference between the ACT Wheel and verbal aikido is that the ACT Wheel works wonderfully for literally any experience that a client can concretely imagine or remember, whereas verbal aikido works best for situations in which a person struggled. If you have someone handy that you can use as a guinea pig, you can test this out by using verbal aikido and the ACT Wheel back to back with them on a couple of different situations (mix it up, do both positive and negative ones), and seeing how it feels to use these tools. Ask the person you’re working with how it felt to go through it as well and notice their feedback. If you try it out let me know how it goes.