Cognitive f dDefusion and

WillingnessWillingness

How Acceptance and Commitment Therapy Can

Help With Your Career Decision

By Rob Archer – Director, Bloom Psychology Ltd

What is Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT)?Therapy (ACT)?

1. ACT is a so‐called ‘3rd wave’ cognitive behavioural therapyACT is a branch of cognitive‐behavioral therapy, an empirically based psychological intervention that uses acceptance and mindfulness strategies together with commitment and behavior change strategies to increase psychological flexibility.

2. User‐friendly way of dealing with negative emotionsACT has a reliance on practical techniques and metaphors to ensure it is easy to use and understand. I use it with clients who are considering a change in career. Often a stressful g gtime, ACT is a way not so much of ‘tackling’ negative thoughts and emotions but rather renegotiating someone’s relationship with them.

3 Evidence‐based therapy3. Evidence‐based therapyAs a psychologist, I’m always concerned to know that the exercises and techniques I use have solid evidence behind them. ACT has fantastic evidence base across a wide range of treatment interventions – anxiety, stress, depression. However, to my knowledge Bloomtreatment interventions anxiety, stress, depression. However, to my knowledge Bloom Psychology is pioneering its use within the career psychology area.

What is Cognitive Defusion?Most cognitive behavioural approaches to negative thinking seek to eliminate negative g pp g g gthoughts and replace them with positive. However, some negative thoughts simply will not go away. Indeed, the more you push them away the more they return.

Instead, we prefer to practice cognitive defusion which encourages clients to detect their p p g f gthoughts, and to see them as hypotheses rather than objective facts about the world.

The aim of defusion is to try to catch our minds at work telling us stories that are not objective or helpful. We should look at our thoughts, rather than through our thoughts. p g , g gIn other words, treat them like passengers on a bus, chattering away in the background. Some thoughts may be helpful, but most have no real consequence to the direction of our lives.

The exercises in the following pages have been modified for use with career decisions, but the original versions are from the following books. We can highly recommend both!

Pick a thought that your mind often tells you in relation to your

An Exercise in DefusionPick a thought that your mind often tells you in relation to your career change.

‘I am X’ (for example ‘I’m incompetent’ or ‘I’m not good enough’).

Is this thought helpful? Does it motivate you?

If not, take this thought and in front of it place the words:

‘I’m having the thought that I’m X’

For example, ‘I’m having the thought that I’m incompetent’.

Say this to yourself now.

Then, go further and say:

‘I ti I’ h i th th ht th t X’‘I notice I’m having the thought that X’

You can use this process with any unpleasant thought. This process is known as defusion. In a state of fusion, thoughts seem like the absolute truth; in a state of defusion they are merely bits of language.

Can you identify the stories that your mind often tells you about yourself and your

Identifying Your ‘Usual Suspects’

Summarise the thought / Nickname for this story Is this thought

Can you identify the stories that your mind often tells you about yourself and your career change? Think again of any of those ‘snakes’ you identified previously.

g /typical pattern

y ghelpful?

For example: ‘I’m such a loser’ ‘The loser story’ No. It doesn’t help me advance towards my values or objectives. Buying this thought only makes me go into my shell or feel apologetic for trying to make progress in my life.

Who’s driving your bus?Imagine that you’re driving a bus O th f t f th b i i t t d ti tiImagine that you re driving a bus. On the front of the bus is an important destination ‐ let’s take one of your key values – let’s say ‘freedom’. As you drive, passengers climb aboard. They represent your experiences, memories, thoughts and feelings. Some of the passengers are nice, but others are nasty and keep telling you that you’re going the wrong

The temptation is to argue with them – I’m not a terrible driver! – or to try wrestling them off the bus. Trouble is,

p g , y p g y y g g gway, you’re a terrible driver, you’re driving too fast etc. Do you recognise them already?

this stops you from driving. Or you could try negotiating with them, try a different route, and go off on a detour. But how many times has this actually worked?

We have news for you; your mind’s battle with itself is anWe have news for you; your mind s battle with itself is an unwinnable war.

But there is an alternative. You can choose to accept the presence of the passengers – even though you don’t like all of them ‐ and be willing to have them so long as you are making

This is often a major shift in thinking. But think of the times when you’ve said that you’ll just wait to feel d d f d b f h l f ll b h f ?

them and be willing to have them so long as you are making progress towards your values. After all, if you think about it, are your fears really more important than your values?

motivated and more confident before you change your life. Have you ever actually been in this perfect position? Or are the fears you have the same ones they’ve had for years and years, and yet still you put your life on hold?

Ultimately the question you must ask yourself is who’s in charge of your bus? Is it your passengers or is it you?

A VideoThis is a short film by Joe Oliver which brings the ‘bus’ metaphor further to life. Except it uses a boat. Don’t be confused, the boat is a lot like the bus.

An Exercise In WillingnessMy vision is to.... (summarise briefly)

The values underlying my goal are.... The values underlying my goal are....

What negative thoughts, emotions and sensations do I expect to experience in pursuit of my vision? p p f y

An Exercise In WillingnessThe thoughts, emotions and sensations I’m willing to have in order to achieve this goal are....

At difficult times, it would be useful to remind myself that....

A Metaphor for WillingnessImagine you’re climbing a mountain and you’re halfway up. Suddenly, the clouds roll in and it starts to rain. You have two choices. You can either head back down or you can carry on. If you carry on, it is not because you like the feeling of being cold

d t It i b l th id fand wet. It is because you value the idea of reaching the top. In other words, you are willing to experience some difficulties to do what you really value.

If you are contemplating a big change, you will experience some emotional discomfort. You can face this challenge by asking yourself what your goal is, what the values underlying the goal are and what thoughts, feelings and urges you are willing to have in order to complete this goalorder to complete this goal.

Why Willingness is ImportantWillingness is essential because it’s the only way to deal effectively with life’s difficulties. Whenever you are faced with a challenge you can either say yes or no If you say yes then setting your ‘willingness’ dial highersay yes or no. If you say yes then setting your willingness dial higher will ensure you stop the struggle with you own thoughts.

If you say no you may avoid the fear and anxiety that comes with anyIf you say no, you may avoid the fear and anxiety that comes with any challenge but your life will gradually get smaller. But if you say yes, life gets bigger..

Bloom PsychologyBloom Psychology is an independent occupational psychology consultancy based

in London.We offer coaching, consultancy,

training measurement andtraining, measurement and assessment to individuals and businesses looking to make a

change for the better.

www.bloompsychology.com www.linkedin.com/robarcher