For those of you who do DNA-V with adolescents and children, I’ve created this simple worksheet. Download here

To use this activity with clients have them think of a situation/event/person/place/thing and write or draw it in the center circle marked “Situation”.

From there you can explore how the Discoverer, Noticer, and Advisor view what’s in the circle, experiment with different ways of viewing it, etc.

The backdrop of the sheet is values, which underlie everything we do. After examining the situation from the advisor’s point of view, noticer’s, and discoverer’s we can extract what values may be significant.

To warm up with this activity I like to experiment with placing literally anything in the center circle (my wedding ring for example) and watching what our Advisor, Noticer, and Discoverer do with it.

As always, let me know if you have any other creative ways of using this activity.

Click through for PDF File

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.

Here is a simple exercise you can do with clients in session or assign for homework.

Google Drive Link

Tara Brach’s latest book Radical Compassion is a must read. In it she presents a modified version of the RAIN mindfulness exercise (which has been around since the 1990s at least, and that she also presented in her book Radical Acceptance). This new version of the RAIN skill is designed to foster self-compassion and a nurturing of the self.

Inspired by this book I’ve created a few of my own versions of the RAIN practice. Included in this folder are two handouts that you and your clients can use together as well as editable versions of them both so that you can modify them to your needs.

Here’s a great values exercise that helps clients think of how they want to use the time they have, and the kind of person they want to be while they do it.

Download here or click the image.

Here is a handy metaphor and mindfulness exercise I have been using with clients. Nearly everyone I have done this with grasps onto it right away and has given positive feedback.

Click here or on the image below to download.

Sometimes clients seek to “compartmentalize” their emotional experience. Luckily I have just the exercise to help them with that. . . but not in the way they might be thinking. This exercise will help your clients come into contact with their own body and self-as-context in a wonderful way.

Download it here or click the image below.

Here is a handy exercise you can use with couples or families designed to help foster compassionate connection with one another, and to lead into values work. In the right context this exercise can be extremely powerful and lead to enormous response from clients.

Download it here or click the image below.

The following is a PDF version of a blog originally published by my work, Pathways Consulting in Kenosha, Wi. It’s an easy to read primer on Acceptance & Commitment Therapy, and contains a helpful metaphor for explaining psychological flexibility processes. You can download it here, or by clicking the image below.

Here is a write up with some psychoeducation on emotions, and a simple exercise designed to help clients slow down their emotional experience and attend to many different components. I use this often with clients. Easy enough to understand for young teens and older.

You can download it here.

I’ve combined some elements of Emotion Efficacy urge surfing, and integrated it in a script which can be used with either the ACT Matrix or the Choice Point. You can download it here.

I’ve been working on a new method of applying ACT with clients in a structured but still flexible way. I call it The ACT Wheel, and it’s been really enhancing the way I work and keeping me more consistent.

I’ve written a small booklet on what the ACT Wheel is and how to use it. You can download it for free here.'