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Values and meaningful action / VAL-A10-4

Willingness in Small Doses — Session activity

Facilitate a structured practice of willingness in small doses with preparation, reflection, and an agreed closing.

30 minutes · Session guide · Mental health professionals

Download printable PDFPreview / add to packet

Fictional example: Avery is nervous about asking a routine question.

Use within your training and assessment of readiness. Values-based action can include manageable discomfort without requiring exposure to danger.

0–5 min | Agree on purpose and fit

Explain the educational scope. Ask what would be useful, check readiness and access needs, and establish choices to observe, adapt, or pass. Use an ordinary example; do not solicit trauma narratives.

5–10 min | Orient with an example

Values-based action can include manageable discomfort without requiring exposure to danger. Fictional example: Avery is nervous about asking a routine question. Ask what is observed and what remains uncertain.

10–20 min | Practice and compare

Identify a low-stakes action, likely feelings, and the support or limit needed to attempt it. Offer quiet individual work, a supported conversation, or an observing role. Compare two possible responses without evaluating people as right or wrong.

20–25 min | Reflect on meaning

What discomfort is optional to make room for, and what signals a need to stop? Ask what fit, what did not fit, and how culture, power, disability access, or external conditions affect the options.

25–30 min | Integrate and close

Invite one optional next step or support request. Orient to the current setting, allow an unfinished question to remain unfinished, and agree how to revisit it. End early or adapt if activation increases.

Adaptations

For a group, use fiction and no compulsory round-robin disclosure. For remote use, allow off-camera reflection and private notes. For brief use, keep one example and one question while retaining opening and closing choices.

Prompts for this resource

  1. What outcome would make this practice useful?
  2. What discomfort is optional to make room for, and what signals a need to stop?
  3. What adaptation or follow-up is needed?

Conceptual background

Valuing as a Choice — Association for Contextual Behavioral Science

Background on the approach only. Original exercises and wording are by More Than Therapy with AI assistance; the source does not validate or endorse these materials.

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