One of my favorite ways to teach defusion is to read children's books to adults, especially books that were likely read to them in childhood like Dr. Seuss and Shel Silverstein, etc. Hearing these stories as an adult helps change their perspective on issues they are facing (I use in a substance use treatment setting, but they can of course be applied to many others). I will start a list of stories that I currently use in my groups, but I'd like to know how many others use this intervention, and what stories you use.

I heard this story in passing years ago, and have used iterations of it. It was only after learning more about ACT had I realized I was using a story to relate avoiding fusion to thoughts positive or negative thoughts/feelings. This iteration I borrowed online, but provide the name of the source:

The Story of the Chinese Farmer

Once upon a time there was a Chinese farmer whose horse ran away. That evening, all of his neighbors came around to commiserate. They said, “We are so sorry to hear your horse has run away. This is most unfortunate.” The farmer said, “Maybe.” The next day the horse came back bringing seven wild horses with it, and in the evening everybody came back and said, “Oh, isn’t that lucky. What a great turn of events. You now have eight horses!” The farmer again said, “Maybe.”

The following day his son tried to break one of the horses, and while riding it, he was thrown and broke his leg. The neighbors then said, “Oh dear, that’s too bad,” and the farmer responded, “Maybe.” The next day the conscription officers came around to conscript people into the army, and they rejected his son because he had a broken leg. Again all the neighbors came around and said, “Isn’t that great!” Again, he said, “Maybe.”

The whole process of nature is an integrated process of immense complexity, and it’s really impossible to tell whether anything that happens in it is good or bad — because you never know what will be the consequence of the misfortune; or, you never know what will be the consequences of good fortune.

Alan Watts
 

This is my paraphrase of the famous brief Stoic work, with the sections labeled with the Core Flexibility Processes - because they just seem to fit so well. This might be a source of new stories or metaphors for your work.  Epictetus doesn't always sound like an ACT therapist - but almost always.

From The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupery

This is from one of my favourite books.

It has many ACT relevant moments in it, this is just one of them:

The next planet was inhabited by a tippler. This was a very short visit, but it plunged the little prince into deep dejection.

"What are you doing there?" he said to the tippler, whom he found settled down in silence before a collection of empty bottles and also a collection of full bottles.

"I am drinking," replied the tippler, with a lugubrious air.

"Why are you drinking?" demanded the little prince.

"So that I may forget," replied the tippler.

"Forget what?" inquired the little prince, who already was sorry for him.

"Forget that I am ashamed," the tippler confessed, hanging his head.

"Ashamed of what?" insisted the little prince, who wanted to help him.

"Ashamed of drinking!" The tippler brought his speech to an end, and shut himself up in an impregnable silence.

And the little prince went away, puzzled. "grown-ups are certainly very, very odd," he said to himself, as he continued on his journey.

I think this makes some nice ACT-relevant points about fusion, experiential avoidance and the futility of avoidance/control strategies.

The tippler is fused with his feeling of shame to the extent that he must avoid it by drinking. However, the costs and consequences of his drinking is further shame that he also fuses with and must avoid, also by drinking.

The tippler is essentially drowning in an alcoholic quicksand. The more he drinks to escape, the more bad stuff shows up, so the more he has to drink to escape a little bit more.

The Little Prince, who is essentially a child who has lived alone and has not been exposed to a verbal community where fusion and avoidance repertoires have fully developed sees this as being very odd indeed.

For a great example of someone dignifying their values with pain, I can whole-heartedly recommend the autobiography "Things the grandchildren should know" by Mark Everett (Lead singer of the band Eels). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Things_the_Grandchildren_Should_Know

From publisher:

How does one young man survive the deaths of his entire family and manage to make something of his life? The insecure son of a misunderstood genius of quantum mechanics, Mark Oliver Everett's upbringing was "ridiculous, sometimes tragic, and always unsteady." But somehow he survived this and ensuing tragedies, channeling his experiences into his critically acclaimed music with the Eels.

Told with surprising candor, his memoir is an inspiring and remarkable story, full of hope, humor, and wry wisdom.