Getting to Know Your Mind

The following worksheet, titled "Getting to Know Your Mind," is an attempt to create an ACT-consistent "thought record" that can assist the client in practicing defusion after they leave the therapy session. ACT clinicians typically engage their clients in defusion work by encouraging them to relate to their thoughts in a variety of ways while emphasizing the automatic nature of thoughts, the harmful effects of avoiding or struggling with thoughts, the subtle experiential differences between fusion and defusion, and using workability/usefulness to measure whether or not a thought should be "used" or bought into. This is a lot for clients to remember and by its very nature can be difficult to grasp after just an hour-long therapy session. The hope is that this form can function as a boiled down, concrete version of defusion work seen in the therapy room and assist the client in making defusion a well-practiced part of their repertoire.