Remember that Acceptance is not trying to change anxiety or depression. The whole point is to learn to have them and get on about living life.

First, we quickly show the pattern of the ACT Matrix: senses, mind, satisfaction, and relief. Then we fill in who's important in the lower right, yucky stuff in the lower left, relief behaviors in the upper left, and satisfaction behaviors in the upper right. 

Then we add stuck loops on the left side. In this case, we would help the person draw anxiety and depression loops.

We then ask how much time out of a 24-hour day the person spends on the left and the right sides.

Noticing this pattern is now the focus. 

You can talk about other stuff to fill your time, but be careful not to add extrinsic motivation or judgments. 

PTSD treatment has gone through stages.

1. The "cathartic" model is related to psychodynamic therapy. The person needed to regurgitate the trauma memory. Unfortunately, this therapy does not work. 
2. CBT for PTSD focuses on changing thoughts that lead to evolving behaviors. However, this has had mixed results and does not address the person's relationship with trauma memory.
3. Prolonged Exposure for PTSD (Foa) focuses on trauma memory and exposure to life (in vivo). The person tells the trauma story while being recorded. The person then listens to the recording many times (prolonged exposure). The person was also instructed to go into stressful places (in vivo), take their Subjective Units of Distress (SUD), and stay until the SUD lowered. While shown to work some for PTSD, Dr. Polk and his colleagues could only convince a minority of Veterans to engage in the therapy.
4. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) for PTSD. Values and Committed Action work were a kinder way of getting...

Looking at Substance Use with Pattern Recognition Therapy (PRT)

Session 1

Step 1: Set up the vertical line.

Step 2: Set up the horizontal line.

Step 3: Set up the four quadrants. (Put yucky stuff like Anxiety, Pain, etc., in the lower left to set up for substance use.)

Step 4: Add Noticing

Step 5: Set up a noticing time spent pattern by creating “Substance Use Stuck Loops” on the left side.

Step 6: As your client talks, occasionally invite them to see their story as part of their pattern.

Step 7: At the end of the session, ask them if they might have the opportunity to notice the patterns showing up in their daily lives.

Session 2 

Step 1: Ask if they noticed any patterns.

Step 2: Ask if they noticed any behavior change.

Step 3: Ask if they noticed any shift in their life balance.

Step 4: As they talk, invite them to see their story as part of their pattern. 

Wash, rinse, and repeat.

You can use more words to fill out the "therapy hour." Be careful not to let...

How to Set Up Pattern Recognition in 2 Sessions

Session 1

Step 1: Set up the vertical line.

Step 2: Set up the horizontal line.

Step 3: Set up the four quadrants.

Step 4: Add Noticing

Step 5: Set up a "noticing time spent" pattern.

Step 6: As your client talks, occasionally invite them to see their story as part of their pattern.

Step 7: At the end of the session, ask them if they might have the opportunity to notice the patterns showing up in their daily lives.

Session 2 

Step 1: Ask the client if they noticed any patterns.

Step 2: Ask if they noticed any behavior change.

Step 3: Ask if they noticed any shift in their life balance.

Step 4: As your client talks, invite them to see their story as part of their pattern. 

Wash, rinse, and repeat.

If you prefer the version with more words, keep reading. 

From Darwin to Skinner to Hayes to Polk

Darwin: Over time, traits that work for the species' survival in context are kept; most that don’t work are...

At The ACT Matrix Academy, the Matrix is our business, but we also use it for business and marketing coaching. 

In today's workshop, we shared our process for writing titles that compel people to click on them. 

The only purpose of your title is to compel the reader to click on the link and register for your workshop. 

We know that people pay for pain relief, so your title should include words that speak to the pain points of your audience.

This isn't necessarily physical pain - just the experiences or activities or items that are yucky for your audience, the things they'd work hard (and maybe pay money) to get away from. 

In Matrix talk, you are positioning yourself - along with your service and/or products - in their upper left. 

You are their yucky stuff relief move. 

Click Here to Download Your Free Title Writing Guide.

Click Here for the Business and Marketing Field Guide and Course + The Life Coaching Workbook and Course

The ACT Matrix way of doing your to-do list guarantees that you're going to get it done because you're simply going to notice if you do it or don't do it. Then, you're going to learn something either way.

In the lower right, write your approach list - the things you want to get done ( (take care of honeybees, talk to your partner). In the lower left, write your avoid list - the things you want to avoid (eating chocolate cake for breakfast, scrolling YouTube at bedtime).

Then, notice what you did or didn't do, and if it's working to get you to the life you want.

Click Here to Download Your To-Do List Template

There's a whole lot of messages coming at us from the world. How do you find intrinsic motivation with all of those messages? There's too many. We find it workable to sort them out and then let your intrinsic motivation come through.

The Philosophy of intrinsic motivation is functional contextualism.

The Science is relational frame theory.

The practice is as simple as getting the matrix diagram out, clearly stating who and what's important to you, noticing the stuff coming in through your five senses, and sorting.

Wash, rinse, repeat, repeat, repeat. 

Using The ACT Matrix Point of View for Life Coaching sets up for noticing stuck loops and time sucks to help folks pivot to actions in the service of their life purpose.

Here’s what we mean: Our point of view starts with two lines, one vertical, and one horizontal, to form a diagram with four quadrants. Our five senses experiencing sits at the top, and our mental experiencing at the bottom, with satisfaction behaviors to the right and relief behaviors to the left.

In the lower right quadrant we ask, “Who is important to you,” and when doing life coaching we add, “What is your life purpose?” We at The ACT Matrix Academy show up for world peace, psychological flexibility, psychological safety, and coaching. You may notice other important people or life purpose. Write that in the lower right.

Next we move to the lower left quadrant and ask, “What shows up and gets in the way of life purpose?” This is the yucky stuff. We write down things like...

The work you are doing is vitally important. Each workplace is profound; each job has meaning; each person has great worth. We all seek or hold on to our reason for being, and we wage that struggle at work.

Thus, in each workplace, you enter a landscape of epic battles. Good versus evil, right versus wrong, the powerful versus the weak. When encountering these age-old conflicts, it’s tempting to enter with your sword raised high. But, you’re afraid, and you must have your best weapon at the ready. 

Our collective experience has taught us to lay our sabers down. Instead, we enter with kindness and respect for the good and even great work we witness, and we are humbled.

However, we are not meek like a mouse. That would not honor the people and the great work they are doing. On the contrary, there is strength in our kindness; our respect has infinite power. And still, we must be humble with our strength and power. We are not flashy, flamboyant, or flippant. We are...