Fwd: [acceptanceandcommitmenttherapy] Self-as-context stuff from the professional list

[Guest guest]

D J Moran posted an awesome post on the professional list that )coincidentally) was on the topic wewere discussing ... I asked him and he said it wouldbe cool to repost here- S C.

Foundation ProfessorDepartment of Psychology /298University of NevadaReno, NV 89557-0062 " Love isn't everything, it's the only thing " hayes@... or stevenchayes@...

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When I was 25 years old, I told myself I’d go to Reno

someday and contribute to the ACT literature. 

So here I am, 41 years old, in a casino hotel in Reno writing an email to our listserve.  Not what I had originally planned, but I

wouldn’t have it any other way. ;-)I’m breaking this post into two parts.  I think the first is relevant to the

listserve, and second part is just a “human interest story” germane to the

first part.Part 1.Over the last couple of years, I’ve been working at getting

the ACT processes across to people in organizations in order to influence

performance, safety, and leadership.  The

real struggle was with making the “self-as-context” (SAC) domain relevant and

understandable in a group setting to people in industry… without sounding “too

out-there.”  The SAC is a tough nut to

crack, even for ACT enthusiast mental health professionals.  I recall once having a good laugh with a

really great ACT therapist when we were lampooning SAC, and wishing we could

just ditch the entire concept and move forward with the Pentaflex model.  (Name withheld to protect the guilty.)  I actually flip-flopped and really think SAC is crrrrritical to good ACT therapy...

To keep SAC in the ACTrainings I’ve been doing, I decided to

use what I call the “I am” exercise. 

I’ve attached a pdf of the handout I use.  It is ridiculously simple… it probably doesn’t

even deserve a name or an email attachment, but I figured I’d have to call it

something to talk about it.  (There’s probably stuff out

there exactly like this exercise.  I just

don’t know where I might have heard of it before.)The sheet has 10 numbered sentence stems, and they all say

“I am _______________.”  (It’s kind of

like the Rotter Incomplete Sentence Test, but with far less imagination!)I invite you to print it out and do the exercise.  Here’s the directions:Once everyone in the group has a sheet and pen, I say: “If

you’re willing to play along, I invite you to fill in the blanks.  Just go ahead and write the words that come

to mind to describe yourself.  There

aren’t any right or wrong answers, I won’t be collecting them, and I won’t ask

you to read what you wrote.”

Sometimes I continue: “To give you a sense of how this works, I might write: I

am a psychologist.  I am giving

a workshop.  I am six foot three inches.  I am talking.”  [N.B. I am alternating examples of self-as-content

and self-as-process without really lecturing on that stuff.]“Now go ahead and give it a try.”

Sometimes, in groups that seem to be having fun with the ACTraining, I’ll say:

“Now don’t copy off the guy next to you!” 

;-)When it seems everyone is done, I say: “OK folks, now I’m

not doing any mind games here… I just want to try a little exercise.  I’d like someone to give me a random number

from 1 to10.”“Seven!” someone may call out.“OK folks, just cross out what you wrote for number 7…”  [groans, laughs]“Now let me ask you… are you still you?  If that word is deleted, are you still

you?  Now I get it… there are some fringe

words, like “alive” that you might have written… and well, boom, you’ve busted

the exercise… but that aside…  in a

sense, are you still you if that description is deleted?  Check it out… let’s do it again… and so it’s

not like I’m manipulating anything, someone else give me a number…”“Five” someone may call out.“OK, great.  Cross out

what you wrote in number five.  Now, with

that gone, are you still you?  See, if I

wrote “six foot three,” you know I could get into a car crash, become a double

amputee, and them I’m five foot ten… right. 

And I’m still me.  And I can cross

out “psychologist,” too.  I may perform

the duties of a psychologist, and be recognized by the State of Illinois as a

psychologist, but I could retire one day and not be a psychologist… and I’m

still me.  And I am standing – but now…” (then I sit).  - - - - “I’m still me.”“What if you crossed off EVERYTHING you wrote!?  What remains?

“Nothing!” – someone usually says.“Nope… something still remains… what’s still on the paper?”Eventually: “What is still there is: “I am - period” 

“I am.  That’s the

whole statement.  The whole

sentence.  It’s simply “I am.”  You are not what you describe yourself to

be.  You aren’t limited by these

words. (If it were a workshop with psychologists, I’d talk about

“defining” and the root fin and finite, etc.)“You simply are.  We are not the things we describe ourselves

to be.  We can experience, simply

experience our life from a point of view… a unique point of view… we might say

that we are talking about our core self.”“Now, why this weird trippy thing is important: we can

couple this “I am” with all the stuff we learned about mindfulness [usually

covered by now in the workshop], about being in the here and now… and we can

say “I am here now…”And then I segue into values clarification.  I believe a person is better off clarifying

values once they are unencumbered from self-as-content stuff.  I think what we report to value can be

tainted by who we’ve been taught to say we are. 

(Follow that?)

So what’s the point??:  I think if you’re

doing SAC work in groups (heck, even individually), this 10 item “I am”

sentence stem exercise can experientially shed some light on the self-as-context, especially

as you peel away the layers of content and process by crossing out some of the

words.  Play with it, and you might see

some use for it in your own work.Part 2.I did this exercise about 10 days ago with construction

workers.  There was a woman in the back

of the class, new to the company, and totally decked out in tattoos and

piercings.  She fit in as one of the 10%

of the workers I’ve had in my workshops who were just totally against the idea

of being taught safety by a psychologist. 

(Really, despite what people might guess, I’d say a good 50% of the

front-line employees I’ve worked with are into the idea of ACTraining, 40% are

indifferent…)So this woman named Kendra is giving me the “screw you” vibe

the entire first half of the workshop. 

After break, she comes back with her sweatshirt removed, and she has a

giant tattoo across her upper chest: “I AM”I see this tattoo and go right into the worksheet

exercise.  At the end of the exercise (even though my

better angels told me not to), I said to her, “Does your tattoo on your chest

say anything else after it?  I have a

feeling it doesn’t…”She replied: “No.  It

just says “I am” period.I then tried to get her and the class to bug out on the coincidence

and how cool it was that she TATTOOED it on her body… but I was the only one

trippin…At the end, she bolted for the door.  Gave me nothing but attitude the rest of the

day.That same night, I go to my brother-in-law’s birthday party.  He works for the same company so all the

employees were there drinking beer and hanging out.  And there was Kendra… who was introduced to

me as…MY NIECE!!!!She is a long-lost part of my wife’s family and my

relative!  We talked for a while and she

said, essentially, “You know, that “I am” exercise isn’t all that “out

there.”  I’m 22 years old, and had this

tat for a while.  People can really dig

into the idea of having their own perspective and unique point of view.”…which was nice to hear. 

I always wondered if the SAC work in ACT would “transfer” into my

nonclinical workshops.  It turns out that

it can resonate with folks…  The whole

day was an edifying experience!Thanks for letting me share that…

D.J.--Dr. J. MoranFounder & Senior Consultant

1415 Maple RoadJoliet, IL 60432(877) 9 - PICKSLYDE 

dj@...http://www.pickslyde.com

D.J.--Dr. J. MoranFounder & Senior Consultant

1415 Maple RoadJoliet, IL 60432(877) 9 - PICKSLYDE 

dj@...http://www.pickslyde.com