Free Values Guide: Help Your Clients Identify And Connect To Their Values

Following the launch of our guide Values: Connecting to What Matters we’re thrilled to announce we are making a free abridged version of it available to anyone that may find it useful.

An Introduction To Values can be downloaded (below) and used by anyone – you don’t need to be a member of Psychology Tools. As a professional, you can use it with clients who could benefit from taking steps towards what matters to them. You can also share it with colleagues, or anyone interested in learning more about values.

Written in collaboration with Dr Jenna LeJeune, ACT Peer Reviewed trainer and author of Values in Therapy: A Clinician’s Guide to Helping Clients Develop Psychological Flexibility and Live a More Meaningful Life, this free guide helps readers live a well-lived life, in which they are connected to their values.

“During difficult times, our struggles can pull us away from what matters most. This guide is a practical and accessible resource that equips people with the tools needed to reconnect with their values, enabling people to cultivate meaningful, well-lived lives even in the midst of adversity.” (Dr Jenna LeJeune)

Help your clients identify what matters to them

This free guide is designed to introduce readers to foundational ideas about values from the perspective of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT). It will help clients to take the first steps towards identifying what matters to them and how their values can provide a sense of meaning and purpose.

A combination of psychoeducation, practical exercises and skills development, An Introduction To Values is a stand-alone resource that can be used as a handout to prompt discussion in-session, or as part of self-practice. It’s written in a client-friendly, conversational style, with plenty of illustrations and worked examples, so that concepts are accessible and easy to understand.

The guide covers:

• The problem of trying to feel good: an introduction to the ACT perspective of discomfort and suffering.
• What are values? The concept of values can be confusing. The guide explains what values are and how therapists might talk about them.
• Values are directions not destinations: outlining the difference between goals and values, and how they can be used to give life meaning and purpose.
• Values can help you cope with difficult experiences: introducing an ACT approach to dealing with difficulty.
• Exercise 1: practice choosing your values. Practical exercises guide clients through this important process, including instructions and prompts.
• Exercise 2: setting the course for your valued life journey. Explore how to develop a plan for moving towards your identified values.
• Facing barriers and staying on course: looking at potential barriers that may arise and possible solutions.

An Introduction To Values is an abridged version of our longer and more comprehensive guide: Values: Connecting To What Matters, which contains additional exercises and information. The full guide is available to anyone with an Advanced or Complete membership plan, which you can learn more about here.