Trauma Support Wednesday check in December 16th

Hiya peeps, welcome to the Wednesday check in, hope your doing pawsome, but if not that's ok to, feel free to tell us about it.

Today's check in is on dealing with trauma with ACT, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. I'll post some links at the bottom of the page.

But first an icebreaker: ice cream or frozen yogurt?

ACT is based on relational frame theory (RFT), a school of research focusing on human language and cognition. RFT suggests the rational skills used by the human mind to solve problems may be ineffective in helping people overcome psychological pain. Based on this suggestion, ACT therapy was developed with the goal of teaching people that although psychological pain is normal, we can learn ways to live healthier, fuller lives by shifting the way we think about pain.

ACT is concerned about identifying thoughts, feelings, sensations, and urges that act as obstacles to valued living and then change the function of and our relationship to those experiences vs. changing the experiences themselves (i.e., getting “rid of”). This is the acceptance skill – bringing an open and willing attitude towards all internal experiences. It does not mean resigning yourself to your circumstances or giving in to where pain usually leads you. It simply means instead of struggling to get rid of or reduce thoughts and feelings, they’re accepted. Why? Because to not think about something is to think about the very thing you did not want to think about. (Try it now: don’t think about chocolate cake). To resist a feeling is to have the feeling all the more.

Attempts to control or avoid can lead to the paradoxical effect of greater suffering and a perception of loss of control of the focus for elimination.

The ACT matrix is two intersecting lines on a piece of paper.

The vertical line represents experience, and is split into sensory experience on the upper half of the line (ex. smells, sounds) and mental experience on the lower half (ex. interpretations of verbal information, thoughts).

The horizontal line represents behavior, and is split between two types of behavior; actions aimed at moving away from unwanted experience (ex. anxious thoughts) and actions aimed at moving toward what’s important (ex. a family member). As humans, our behavior is motivated by both sensory and mental experiences, but it often requires a concerted effort to differentiate between the two. And this is where the matrix becomes helpful

Acceptance and commitment therapy teaches mindfulness skills to help individuals live and behave in ways consistent with personal values while developing psychological flexibility.

Psychological flexibility, the main goal of ACT, typically comes about through several core values.

MINDFULNESS AND ACT

Mindfulness can be described as maintaining contact with the present moment rather than drifting off into autopilot. Mindfulness allows an individual to connect with the observing self, the part that is aware of but separate from the thinking self. Mindfulness techniques often help people increase awareness of each of the five senses as well as of their thoughts and emotions. Mindfulness also increases an individual’s ability to detach from thoughts. Challenges related to painful feelings, urges, or situations are often first reduced and then eventually

accepted. Acceptance is the ability to allow internal and external experiences to occur instead of fighting or avoiding the experience. If someone thinks, “I’m a terrible person,” that person might be asked to instead say, “I am having the thought that I’m a terrible person.” This effectively separates the person from the cognition, thereby stripping it of its including the pain inevitably accompanying some situations. Acceptance of things as they come, without evaluating or attempting to change them, is a skill developed through mindfulness.This shift can free people from difficulties attempting to control their experiences and help them become more open to actions consistent with their values, values clarification and the definition of values-based goals also being key components of ACT.

Question 1: How does the idea of accepting your feelings has valid, feel to you?

As always these questions are optional, feel free to drop off or pick up a hug or 2 or jus say hiya.

Hang tough stay pawsome ur friend and forum supporter 🔥

https://hgps.org/newsletter/acceptance-commitment-therapy-in-group-practice/

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/therapy-types/acceptance-and-commitment-therapy

https://www.psychotherapy.net/article/Acceptance-and-Commitment-Therapy-ACT

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