ACT With Compassion

Scripts for Building Compassion

• Compassionate Color Script
• Eyes on Compassion Script
• Paul Gilbert's Compassionate letter writing exercise

Exercises to Help you Prepare fro Session

• Guidelines for effective use of self-disclosure with highly self-critical and shame prone clients

Lovingkindness Meditation Exercises from the AWC Blog:

• Lovingkindness for everyone in the room -- In our groups for people who are highly self-critical, we have found that having the group extend wishes of lovingkindness to each group member using personalized lovingkindness phrases can be a powerful connecting experience and can help activate peoples’ social safety systems
• Lovingkindness Meditation recordings and scripts -- We have created a sequence of Lovingkindness Meditations that you can use with highly self-critical clients, to help them activate their "social safety system"
• Lovingkindness meditation tracking worksheet
• Holding and Being Held with personalized LKM phrase -- This exercise uses the power of perspective taking to help individuals get in contact with their values around how they would want to treat themselves when they suffer, particularly when they suffer with shame and self-criticism
• Working with Clients to Identify Personalized Lovingkindness Phrases -- We've created a script for a meditation exercise that you can use to guide your clients to identify their own personalized lovingkindness phrases. Developing customized phrases for lovingkindness meditations can be powerful for clients, especially if they are highly critical of themselves.

Perspective Taking Exercises from the AWC Blog:

• Using Video to Elicit Flexible Perspective Taking and Compassion -- In this post, we highlight how you can use videos in session in order to help facilitate perspective taking and compassion in clients
• Now and Then: Using temporal framing to facilitate more flexible, compassionate perspective taking --  This flexible perspective taking exercise involves guiding your client to see themselves at a younger age, and then extend kindness to their younger self. Perspective taking exercises can help people learn to treat themselves more compassionately
• Teaching clients to “VOUCH” for themselves -- using perspective taking to facilitate learning in those who are highly self-critical and shame-prone 
• Use of I/You Perspective Taking with Highly Self-Critical and Shame Prone Clients -- We describe an exercise based upon "Relational Frame Theory" that can help clients recognize a therapist's perspective, as well as develop warmer responses to themselves

Other Exercises from the AWC Blog

• Self-Enquiry into self-criticism, self-blame, and shame -- This post discusses how we can build healthy self-doubt through "self-enquiry," the process of asking oneself questions to remain to learn openly from others and the world.