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5 Ways to Harnessing the power of values-based exposures

5 Ways to Harnessing the power of values-based exposures

by | Disengaging and using safety crutches, Searching for certainty, predictability, & re-assurance

Today’s episode takes off with discussing fears of driving. This is the starting point to examine a key process within acceptance commitment therapy: values-based exposures.

In this episode, you will learn the principles to approach your fears, worries, and anxieties flexibly and in the service of your values.

Brian Thompson, Ph.D. and I covered different ACT skills such as defusion, values, willingness and what you can do if you’re getting stuck in conquering your fears or you’re afraid of starting the process of facing your anxieties.

Key Takeaways

  • What is willingness
  • How to deal with uncertainty
  • What to do when you’re powering through a fearful situation
  • What is exposure
  • Understanding fear-based reactions and safe behaviors
  • Exploring the concept of exposure in overcoming fear
  • Dealing with physical sensations during fearful situations
  • The role of acceptance and commitment therapy in overcoming fear
  • Understanding the concept of willingness in therapy
  • Addressing fear of uncertainty and unpredictability
  • Introduction to the upcoming book on act-informed exposure for anxiety
  • Understanding act and exposure
  • Dealing with chronic worry
  • Effective problem solving vs. worry

About Brian Thompson, Ph.D.

As a licensed psychologist and Director of the Portland Psychotherapy Anxiety Clinic, Brian specializes in evidence-based treatment for problems related to anxiety, stress, and worry. His specialty areas include obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD—including Pure “O” and relationship OCD), repetitive hair pulling (trichotillomania) and skin picking (excoriation), and trauma/PTSD. Additionally, Brian works with panic and health anxiety (aka, hypochondriasis).

In Brian’s therapeutic approach, he mainly draws from a newer cognitive behavioral treatment, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT, said as one word, “act”), which he values for its broad flexibility and commitment to scientific rigor. Additionally, Brian often flexibly incorporates exposure therapy in treatment.

The clients with whom he tends to work best are those interested in an active approach to learning skills to more effectively deal with barriers to living meaningful lives. Much of what he does in the beginning of treatment is to help people learn tangible skills to more effectively relate to their difficulties, clarify meaningful goals and directions, and identify concrete steps that may help you move towards what’s most important to you.

exposures values acceptance uncertainty anxiety worry fear

Resources

Resources from Dr. Z.’s desk

Show notes with time stamps

00:31 Understanding Fear-Based Reactions and Safe Behaviors
01:00 Exploring Exposure Therapy and Anxiety
01:09 Dealing with Physical Sensations During Panic Attacks
02:44 Strategies to Manage Anxiety and Fear
03:39 Addressing Intrusive Thoughts and Fears
04:16 Understanding Acceptance and Commitment Therapy
07:33 Exploring Willingness in Therapy
14:28 Addressing Fear of Uncertainty
17:28 Introduction to ACT-Informed Exposure for Anxiety
19:19 Discussing the Book and Its Approach
19:44 Recommendations for Approaching the Book
19:45 Understanding the Process of Exposure
20:38 The Role of Repetition in Exposure
21:37 Handling Chronic Worries and Ruminations
22:12 Using ACT for Chronic Worry
23:11 Writing Imaginal Scripts for Worries
26:13 Effective Problem Solving vs. Worry
26:50 Distinguishing Between Productive and Unproductive Worry

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What maintains a psychological struggle?

What maintains a psychological struggle?

by | Disengaging and using safety crutches, Thinking repetitively about future and past painful feelings, events and failures

  • If anxiety is a part of our day to day life, if we hold on to the framework that to be human is to be anxious, how did anxiety ever become a problem?
  • How do you go from worrying about not being good enough to chronic states of worry?
  • How do you go from feeling uncomfortable taking the elevator to developing an elevator phobia?

What maintains a psychological struggle?

And what are the skills – the core skills – that you can learn to navigate those anxious moments and get back into your life?

Short-term fixes that help us avoid or numb our emotions may temporarily alleviate our internal discomfort, but the same responses can also end up causing anxiety, depression, chronic anger, and even physical health problems.

In this episode, I chat with Matthew Mckay, Ph.D.

Key Takeaways

  • The difference between rumination and worry
  • Repetitive negative thinking as a process
  • What is a transdiagnostic process
  • How anxiety becomes a problem in our life
  • What is a safety-seeking behavior
  • Process-based changes

About Matthew

Matthew McKay, Ph.D., cofounder of New Harbinger Publications, joins us to talk about evidence-based resources and the ever-changing landscape of therapy. Matthew is a professor at the Wright Institute in Berkeley, CA. He has authored and co-authored numerous books, including The Relaxation and Stress Reduction Workbook, The Dialectical Behavior Therapy Skills Workbook, Self-Esteem, and Couple Skills, which have sold more than four million copies combined. He received his Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the California School of Professional Psychology and specializes in the cognitive behavioral treatment of anxiety and depression.

psychological struggle

Resources

Matthew’s Books:

From Dr. Z’s desk

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How to engage in values-based behaviors when feeling anxious

How to engage in values-based behaviors when feeling anxious

by | Criticizing, judging, & attacking yourself, Disengaging and using safety crutches

  • Do you remember last week when your mind was criticizing you and asking you to play-it-safe?

Using Acceptance and Commitment Skills, you are always invited to bring awareness to your internal experiences, especially when you are feeling stuck in a habit or unhelpful behavioral patterns such as overthinking, procrastinating, or others.

You are also invited to figure out your values and take action toward what truly matters to you, especially when feeling emotional discomfort.

In this episode, Julian McNally, M. Psych. and I discuss those values-based actions when your mind tries to convince you to engage in old behavioral patterns.

Key Takeaways

  • Creative Hopelessness
  • Values-based behaviors
  • Values-based exposures
  • Notice approaching versus avoidant behaviors
  • How to practice acceptance of messy moments
  • Focus on your doing your best, not being the best
  • Focusing on what is happening right now instead of the why

About Julian McNally

Julian McNally has practiced counseling psychology since 1995. He trained in client-centered and solution-oriented approaches before discovering Acceptance and Commitment Therapy in 2003. The mindfulness components of ACT harmonized with his long standing interest in Zen Buddhism and Taoism (Julian was a Tai Chi instructor for six years).

Shortly after reading Acceptance and Commitment Therapy by Hayes, Strosahl and Wilson, Julian started developing the world’s first online audio ACT training resource, 6 ACT Conversations through RMIT University (online at http://emedia.rmit.edu.au/communication/).

This resource has been utilized and cited by many ACT trainers, practitioners and their clients, and is featured in a chapter Julian co-authored in the New Harbinger book, Mindfulness and Acceptance for Counseling College Students. As well as seeing individuals for counseling, Julian also supervises other ACT practitioners in Melbourne, and throughout Australia and internationally (Google Meet, Skype, Zoom or phone) and is principal psychologist at Melbourne’s first ACT center, The ACT of Living.

social perfectionism, values-based behaviors

Resources

Resources from Dr. Z.

Show notes with time-stamps

01:00 Exploring Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
01:39 Values-Based Actions and Behavioral Science Insights
04:59 Personal Journey: Acting, Stage Fright, and Self-Acceptance
12:45 Clown Class: Learning to Embrace Humor and Vulnerability
16:54 Embracing Mistakes and Moving Forward
 

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How to make decisions and values-based choices when feeling anxious

How to make decisions and values-based choices when feeling anxious

by | Disengaging and using safety crutches, Criticizing, judging, & attacking yourself

One of the things we know is that when anxiety’s pressing, we immediately start anticipating the negative outcomes, get concerned about not knowing what the outcome will be, or may dwell on past decisions. Different research labs have shown that anxiety by nature increases our attention to the negatives of a situation.

Sometimes, you may have caught all those anxiety-driven thoughts. Other times, you may quickly make decisions based on all of them. Of course, no human being wants to make poor choices. We want to minimize all the negative outcomes, but that can be really difficult, and sometimes, we are going to be confused.

In this conversation with Brad Stulberg, we discuss the different skills to manage decision-anxiety and make values-based choices in your day-to-day life.

Key Takeaways

  • How to create long-lasting change in your life
  • How your actions precede your moods, not the other way around
  • How to practice acceptance in your daily life
  • Values-based decisions versus anxious-based decisions
  • Decision anxiety
  • How to practice self-distancing when facing a decision
  • Decision anxiety when dating
  • Commitment phobias
  • Overfitting when making decisions
  • Destiny belief mindset

About Brad Stulberg

Brad Stulberg’s work explores principles of mastery and well-being that transcend capabilities and domains. Brad is particularly interested in the philosophical and psychological foundations of excellence, and the habits and practices necessary to attain it. He is an author of the book The Practice of Groundedness and coauthor of the books Peak Performance and The Passion Paradox. These books explore the art, science, and practice of motivation, values-driven excellence, and maximizing one’s potential—all the while realizing a more fulfilling and sustainable kind of success. He writes about these concepts on The Growth Equation, his popular blog and multimedia platform. He is a regular contributor at The New York Times, and his work has also been featured in The Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, New Yorker, Time, Los Angeles Times, Wired, New York Magazine, Sports Illustrated, and more. He is also a contributing editor to Outside Magazine. In his coaching practice, he intimately partners with clients to apply the principles about which he writes.

Resources 

Resources from Dr. Z

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brad

Learn research-based skills and actionable steps to make better decisions, adjust to uncertain situations, make bold moves, & do more of what matters to you.

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How to push back social perfectionism

How to push back social perfectionism

by | Disengaging and using safety crutches, Criticizing, judging, & attacking yourself

  • When was the last time you had a social mishap in a conversation?
  • Do you remember how it feels to say the wrong thing at the wrong time?

If you’re a shy person or are struggling with social anxiety or social perfectionism, you are holding onto the beliefs that you must sound smart, interesting, or funny; that there should never be awkward silences in conversations; that you shouldn’t stumble over words; that you should never mispronounce a word.

You may manage those thoughts and the anxiety that comes with them by avoiding social situations, rehearsing over and over what you are going to say and how you are saying it, only talking to people you feel comfortable with, or comparing your social performance with others’ social performance.

When you are unable to meet this perfectionistic social standard, you feel that you have failed.

But the truth is that none of us can live up to this perfectionistic social standard or have perfect social performances.

When we start to accept this and stop automatically playing-it-safe, we feel better about ourselves and have less anxiety in social situations.

In this conversation with Julian McNally, M. Psych., we discussed acceptance and commitment skills for anxiety related to social situations.

Key Takeaways

  • How to live your values
  • How to practice commitment
  • Playing-it-safe 
  • How to manage negativity biases
  • How to deal with comparison thoughts
  • Context sensitivity

About Julian McNally

Julian McNally has practiced counseling psychology since 1995. He trained in client-centered and solution-oriented approaches before discovering Acceptance and Commitment Therapy in 2003. The mindfulness components of ACT harmonized with his long standing interest in Zen Buddhism and Taoism (Julian was a Tai Chi instructor for six years).

Shortly after reading Acceptance and Commitment Therapy by Hayes, Strosahl and Wilson, Julian started developing the world’s first online audio ACT training resource, 6 ACT Conversations through RMIT University. 

In addition to seeing individuals for counseling, Julian also supervises other ACT practitioners in Melbourne, and throughout Australia and internationally.

He is principal psychologist at Melbourne’s first ACT center, The ACT of Living.

social perfectionism

Resources

Resources from Dr. Z.

Show notes with time-stamps

01:00 Navigating Social Mishaps and Anxiety
03:34 Julian McNally on Social Anxiety
04:32 Personal Reflections on Playing-It-Safe
24:01 Expanding Beyond Comfort Zones
29:19 The Journey of Asking for Help
32:52 Embracing New Challenges and Mindsets
 

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How to practice mindfulness in the middle of it all

How to practice mindfulness in the middle of it all

by | Disengaging and using safety crutches, Taking my thoughts too seriously

  • When was the last time you had an aha moment in which your next steps were clear?
  • Do you remember how it is to be in the midst of a difficult situation, and then, have clarity of what you need to do?

If you pay attention to your experiences, you may notice those aha moments in which your choices are clear – you will be able to clearly see what you are longing for or the changes you need to make in your life.

Without that awareness, it’s easier to play-it-safe, live automatically, and continue to respond to all those anxieties, worries, and fears in the same way you have been doing for years.

One way to build that awareness is through the practice of mindfulness.

In this conversation, Seth Gillihan, Ph.D. and I discuss how to nourish your mindfulness practice!

In a world that moves so fast, and there are hundreds of mindfulness apps, books on mindfulness, and mindfulness teachers, it is easy to develop misconceptions surrounding the practice of mindfulness or to hope for a quick fix with it.

But how can you really cultivate your mindfulness practice in your daily life?

Key Takeaways

  • How to approach mindfulness with a beginner’s mind
  • The intersection of christianity and mindfulness
  • Tips to practice mindfulness in your day-to-day life
  • How to use movement as a way to practice mindfulness
  • How to bring yourself back to the present when your mind is wandering
  • The intersection of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and mindfulness
  • How to coach yourself to recognize thoughts as thoughts versus getting consumed by them
  • How to practice non-attachment to how things are supposed to be
  • The relationship between non-attachment and mindfulness
  • How looking for the evidence for and against a worry may not be helpful
  • How to use mindfulness skills to manage worry 
  • The benefits of developing an observer-self

About Seth Gillihan, Ph.D.

Seth Gillihan is a licensed psychologist who specializes in mindful cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). He was a full-time faculty member at the University of Pennsylvania from 2008 to 2012, and taught in the Psychology Department at Haverford College from 2012-2015. He has been in private practice since 2012. Seth completed a doctorate in psychology at the University of Pennsylvania.

He is the author of multiple books on mindfulness and CBT, Therapy Advisor with the self-therapy app Bloom, a medical reviewer for Everyday Health, and host of the Think Act Be podcast.

mindfulness

Resources

Resources from Dr. Z

Show notes with time-stamps

00:00 Unlocking Aha Moments and Mindfulness Insights
02:10 Dr. Seth Gillihan and the Mindfulness Conversation
02:22 Exploring Misconceptions and Cultivating Mindfulness
05:18 Personal Journey to Mindfulness: Seth’s Story
12:28 Mindfulness in Daily Life: Practical Tips and Experiences
17:15 Navigating Judgments and Staying Present: Mindful Techniques
21:19 Embracing Non-Attachment and Mindfulness in Everyday Activities
24:09 Embracing Life’s Unpredictability
24:48 Mindfulness and Cognitive Behavior: A Powerful Blend
25:18 Navigating Worry and Rumination with Mindfulness
27:37 The Power of Acceptance in Mindfulness Practice
28:38 Finding Peace Amidst Life’s Storms
31:16 The Journey of Self-Discovery and Connection
32:52 Transcending Pain and Suffering Through Mindfulness
33:51 A Personal Story of Illness and Rediscovery
37:59 Exploring the Transcendental in Psychology
41:29 Mindfulness and Spirituality
 

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