Trauma-Focused ACT

What If Clients Have Trouble With The Willingness Scale?

Of the three 0-10 scales - presence, willingness, and CPA (control of physical action) - clients are most
likely to have trouble with willingness/acceptance. The ability to open up and willingly allow difficult
private experiences (i.e. acceptance) is, for most people, the hardest skill to develop in the whole ACT
model; and the higher their initial level of experiential avoidance, the more difficulty they are likely to
have developing this skill. So if your client can’t reach a 7 on the willingness scale, you have two options:

a) Temporarily drop the willingness scale, and just work with the other two scales; build the client’s
ability to be present and control their physical actions, even while unwilling to have inner experiences.

b) Change the focus of your session. Work on developing acceptance and self-compassion skills (revisiting
creative hopelessness as needs be)

What If Clients Have Trouble With The Other Scales?

If your client can’t reach a 7 on the presence or CPA scale, you again have two options:
a) Temporarily drop using that scale, and just work with one or both of the other two.
b) Change the focus of your session. Work on the skills of being present or mindfully moving the body.

© Russ Harris 2021 | www.ImLearningACT.com Page 1