Values in Therapy: A Clinician's Guide to Helping Clients Explore Values, Increase Psychological Flexibility, and Live a More Meaningful Life

• Jenna LeJeune and Jason Luoma treat values as ways of living, not words on a list. A person can name kindness without acting kindly. What makes the value visible is the quality of what they do. The authors use verbs and adverbs to describe values. Both the action and how you do it matter. This moves the question from “Which word describes me?” to “How do I want to act here?” [1]
• Values are freely chosen. They do not gain their force merely because another person approves of them or because a rule says they are right. The book distinguishes a chosen direction from outside pressure. That difference matters in a therapy conversation: the aim is to help a client find what matters to them. An answer can please the person asking. That does not make it the client’s own choice. [1][2]
• A value gives direction; a goal names something you can complete. You can finish a course or hold a difficult meeting. You cannot finish being curious or treating people with care. The authors argue that a value is at hand in the present, even when a larger goal stays far away. You can make progress now. You need not wait for the final outcome to show that the effort was worthwhile. [1]
• A conversation can uncover values before a client can name them. The authors listen for vitality and willing vulnerability. Notice where a person becomes more engaged, or is willing to risk being open. These moments can offer clues to what matters. Values work starts with that live exchange, rather than asking only for a list of words. [3]
• Pain can also point toward a value. Sadness and longing may reveal a wish for connection or belonging. The authors use those feelings as ways to explore what matters. This avoids treating every painful feeling as something to remove before a meaningful life can begin. What hurts may help show what the person cares about. [4]
• Action can help discover a value, not just express one already chosen. The book calls this values prototyping. A client tries a way of living and learns from it before committing to that direction. [5] This is a clinical guide, grounded in acceptance and commitment therapy. A review by Olga Berkout flags limits of professional scope and answers meant to please others. Those cautions matter when adapting a therapy exercise for use at work. [2][6]

When you draft company values, ask what each word would look like in action. “Care” might mean giving clear feedback soon enough for someone to use it. That is an example for a team to discuss. It is not a definition from the book. The authors’ difference gives you a test: does the value describe a way of acting, or only an attractive word? [1]

When a teammate gives the answer they think you want, slow down before calling it their personal value. A manager can set work standards, but the book’s account of freely chosen values does not make those standards the person’s own commitments. Be clear about which conversation you are having. Asking someone to comply is one task. Asking what matters to them is another. [1]

When a goal ends, ask which direction it served. Finishing a launch may have expressed craft, service, or learning; your team would need to decide which. The same direction can inform the next piece of work. This helps avoid treating the goal as the whole meaning of the effort, while still giving the goal a clear place. [1]

For Turning whispers into standards, the useful move is from a felt preference to a chosen pattern of conduct. Explore what you want to stand for, then name how it would change an action. Use the book to improve that inquiry. Its clinical origin does not turn a manager into a therapist or need colleagues to share private experiences. [2][6]