Pain Science Education Episode 152 | JoAnne Dahl, PhD: The Art And Science Of Values In Pain Care Using Acceptance And Commitment Therapy (ACT)
We are discussing the importance of values in pain care and how values are approached through the lens of acceptance and commitment therapy. In acceptance and commitment therapy, the term values refers to activities that give your life meaning. Values can be looked upon as the people, the causes and the activities that are deeply important to you. When you connect to your values, you’re able to move your life forward in meaningful directions even in the face of very difficult and very painful experiences. This is why values are so important because in clinical trials, values are associated with lots of positive outcomes. Even if pain itself does not change, you can have less anxiety, less depression and improved physical function and enjoy a much richer, full and active life.
The best part of values is that you choose your own values. Often people can confuse a value with a goal. Values are not goals and you never accomplish a value. Instead, values act like a compass that helps you make choices and move you in the direction that you want to go. Values keep you on track with a rich, full and active life, even if you have some pain. Joining us is JoAnne Dahl. She is a Professor of Psychology at Uppsala University in Sweden and a clinical psychologist specializing in behavioral medicine. She is the co-author of the book, The Art and Science of Valuing in Psychotherapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for Chronic Pain, Living Beyond Your Pain and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Relational Frame Theory in Relationships.
We’ll discuss many types of values or what are known as value domains and acceptance and commitment therapy. Values can be a huge topic that many people spend lots and lots of years studying. Values work can be distilled or focus into ten categories. These ten value domains for you to think about are parenting, family and friends, intimate relationships, work, leisure, citizenship, personal growth, health, spirituality and community. As you participate, take a moment to notice what’s essential in your life when you hear one of these value domains mentioned. For example, we’ll discuss the domain of personal care. Personal care can also be looked upon as your personal health which is an important topic for people overcoming chronic pain.
Think about how you would like to take care of your body or how you’d like to take care of your health when it comes to exercise or diet under the ideal circumstances. See if you can connect this to a deeper health value that’s personal to you. For example, you may think, “I want to feel healthy and strong when it comes to exercise.” That’s great and it’s important but then I want you to take that one level deeper and I want you to know or I want you to ask yourself, “Why is this important? Why is it important for me to be healthy and strong?” Notice what comes up for you. You may notice, “I want to be healthy and strong so I can coach my son’s baseball games,” or “I want to be healthy and strong so I can be the PTA President at my daughter’s elementary school,” or possibly, “I want to be healthy and strong so I can be a loving and supportive daughter for my mom who is getting older and is not able to take care of herself anymore.”
There are lots of reasons why you value being healthy and strong. To accompany this episode, I’ve included the Bull’s Eye Values worksheet for you to download. The Bull’s Eye is a values clarification exercise you can use whether you are somewhat with pain or you’re a practitioner and you’re interested in implementing values work during your therapy sessions. The Bull’s Eye worksheet is a one-page handout and a useful tool that you can use in practice whether you’re a physical medicine professional or a mental health professional. To download the Bull’s Eye worksheet, all you have to do is text the word 152Download to the number 44222 or you can go to IntegrativePainScienceInstitute.com/152download. There are specific instructions on how you can use it and you’ll also learn a lot in this episode. Let’s meet JoAnne Dahl as we discuss values and pain care.
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