Webinar Summary

In ACT, values are fundamental because they guide individuals towards meaningful and purposeful living.  They reflect what is most important to a person and provide direction for actions and decisions. By identifying and committing to these values, clients can navigate challenges more effectively and align their behaviours with what truly matters to them.  

However, in day-to-day clinical practice, it can be difficult to objectively gauge our clients’ progress in valued living.  In this webinar, we’ll explore effective strategies to help clients identify their values and tools to evaluate and enhance the impact of therapeutic interventions. There will be a particular focus on understanding and using the Valuing Questionnaire (VQ) to measure client progress and outcomes in ACT. The VQ (Smout et al. 2014) is a 10-item self-report scale designed to measure how consistently an individual has been living with their self-determined values. It measures two constructs:

1. Progress, defined as enactment of values, perseverance, and including clear awareness of what is personally important.
2. Obstruction, which reflects the disruption of valued living due to avoidance of unwanted experience, distraction from values by inattention to values or undue attention to distress.

We will explore how measuring key ACT constructs – such as valued living – with a questionnaire helps make the ideas more tangible to clients, as well as enhancing motivation, the therapeutic alliance and treatment outcomes.