Coaches: Help Your High-Achieving Clients Get Unstuck
According to Acceptance and Commitment (AC )Coaching theory, clients get stuck because they lack the psychological flexibility necessary to manage troubling thoughts and painful emotions that create barriers to taking action. I’ve found this to be particularly true with very intelligent, high-achieving clients, because they are so used to relying on their minds to think their way out of problems. They use their intelligence and problem solving abilities to control and change variables that they find contributes to their problems. This works great when the variables involved are things...
Read MoreBuilding Psychological Flexibility Through Acceptance
In a recent post I discussed the six components of psychological flexibility. Valued Living, Mindfulness, Acceptance, Commitment, Observing Self, and Disentanglement (Anstiss & Blonna, 2014). In this post I want to focus on Acceptance. Acceptance has four components: accepting reality for what it is accepting what you can and cannot control accepting that trying to avoid, eliminate, or control painful internal factors actually makes them worse accepting that the best way to manage painful internal factors is to accept them, and co-exist with them as you shift your focus off of...
Read MoreBecoming More Psychologically-Flexible Through Commitment
In a recent post I discussed the six components of psychological flexibility: Valued Living, Mindfulness, Acceptance, Commitment, Observing Self, and Disentanglement. In this post I want to focus on Commitment (Anstiss & Blonna, 2014). Commitment is the action part of Acceptance and Commitment (AC) Coaching. When clients commit to something, they pledge to follow through with their plans. Remember: Acceptance involves having clients become more mindful of what is going on in their internal (thoughts, feelings etc.) and external (behavior, physical environment) environments and accepting...
Read MoreBecoming More Psychologically-Flexible Through Valued Living
In a recent post I discussed the six components of psychological flexibility. Valued living (defining valued directions). Contact with the Present Moment (mindfulness). Committed Action (commitment). Acceptance (acceptance). Observing Self (self-as-context). Disentanglement (cognitive defusion). In this post I want to focus on what valued living means and how to help your clients live a more values-based-life. What Are Values? Values are like the North Star. They are guiding lights that serve as sign posts for the direction your clients take in life. As such they are intimately related to...
Read MoreAC Coaching and ACT Theory 101
AC (Acceptance and Commitment) Coaching applies the principles and practices Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) to Coaching. ACT theory revolves around four key concepts: 1. The mind as a 24/7 thinking machine. 2. Current thinking and feeling are filtered through past frames of reference. 3. Words and language play key roles in well-being. 4. Thinking can’t be controlled, but behavior in response to it can be. It’s essential to understand these concepts in order to grasp the notion of psychological inflexibility and getting stuck. I’ll discuss the first concept. The Mind as a 24/7...
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Dr. Rich Blonna
phone 908.334.2543
drrich@drrichblonna.com
