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Values and meaningful action / VAL-A18-4

Trying On a Direction — Session activity

Facilitate a structured practice of trying on a direction with preparation, reflection, and an agreed closing.

30 minutes · Session guide · Mental health professionals

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Fictional example: Avery experiments with creative play without deciding to become an artist.

Use within your training and assessment of readiness. A tentative value can be explored through a reversible action.

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

A tentative value can be explored through a reversible action. Fictional example: Avery experiments with creative play without deciding to become an artist. Ask what is observed and what remains uncertain.

10–20 min | Practice and compare

Choose a possible quality, test a small action, and review whether it feels meaningful rather than deciding in advance. 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 did the experiment teach you about the direction? 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 did the experiment teach you about the direction?
  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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