Helping our patients with psychological flexibility

I often see folks whose experiences of crises and traumas are of the “damaging ways” including PTSD.  Helping them to defuse and come to an awareness of post-traumatic stress growth can give them more hope and motivation to move forward with a life they want to create despite the challenges.

So how can we help…

We can focus on the 6 skills of psychological flexibility as defined by ACT.

1. Defusion from thoughts and feelings. 

2. Being more mindful and present. 

3. More acceptance rather than experiential avoidance. 

4. Self as context rather than a rigid sense of self. 

5. Knowing oneself and one’s values with more clarity to balance the outer world’s values. 

6. Take value based actions authentically and with workability in mind.

It’s not easy of course but psychological flexibility can be a useful framework from which to pivot in these case scenarios.