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Values clarification is a psychotherapy technique that can often help an individual increase
awareness of any values that may have a bearing on lifestyle decisions and actions. This
technique can provide an opportunity for a person to reflect on personal moral dilemmas and
allow for values to be analyzed and clarified. This process may be helpful for self-improvement,
increased well-being, and interactions with others. Therapy often provides an opportunity for
values clarification.
Understanding Values
Case Example
Understanding Values
Values, which may be described as behavioral standards and needs that work to support a
person's purpose and vision, are often a guide in decision making, and a particular individual's
values can be defined as what that person holds to be right or good.
Each person has core values that contribute to that person's system of beliefs, ideas, and attitudes,
and values often affect how a person operates or responds in certain situations.
Values can be influenced by:
Family: In childhood, most people develop an internal reference for what is good or bad,
important, or desirable and useful. This reference is often based on what parents or family
members value.
Religion and/or culture: These values tend to reflect a person's sense of right and
wrong.
Community: Values may be shared by many people who live together in a community.
If a person's value system is undefined, it can lead to dilemmas in life, especially when crucial
decisions need to be made.
safe environment in which people can understand and develop their own set of values and
achieve realization of their motivations and characteristics.
A good therapist should be sensitive and accepting of value systems that differ from the
therapist's own values, as it is considered to be unethical for therapists to pressure individuals
into developing the same set of values as their own.
Values clarification therapy aims to reduce emotional distress and increase positive behaviors
through reinforcement. It helps those in therapy to identify and clarify the values that influence
their decisions and behavior and encourages them to build on their inner resources and strengths.
Someone who has explored their personal values in therapy is often better able to identify what
will enable them to effectively function in life and thus may be able to make more self-directed
choices.
Case Example
Recent college graduate seeking guidance: Naya, 21, enters therapy in some distress.
She recently graduated from college and is looking for her first job, but she is not sure
what she wants to do with her life. She tells the therapist that her parents encouraged her
to study at the college they both attended, that they helped her choose a major, and that
they have heavily influenced most of her major life decisions. Naya has always counted
on their support, and she tells the therapist that she has never made any important
decisions on her own. Her parents have suggested several career options for her, and
Naya relates that none of them sound bad, but that none of them sound particularly
appealing, either. She wants to make this decision on her own but needs help deciding
where to begin. The therapist first helps Naya identify 15 values that are important to her,
then together they narrow these to a shorter list. Naya finds that although she shares many
values with her parents, she has grown apart from many of their more traditional values,
and although she recognizes and appreciates their support and encouragement, she is
ready to start making decisions on her own. She decides that she would like to train to
become a police officer and that she wishes to begin living on her ownchoices she
knows her parents will resist. But with the help of the therapist, she feels empowered to
exercise the right to make her own decisions.
References:
1.
Bonow, J., & Follette, W. (2009). Beyond Values Clarification: Addressing Client Values in Clinical Behavior Analysis.
The Behavior Analyst, 32(1), 69-84.
2.
Marsh,
J.
(n.d.).
Clarifying
Personal
http://www.cmhc.utexas.edu/clearinghouse/files/DP007.pdf
Values.
3.
4.
Values
Clarification.
(n.d.).
Retrieved
July
10,
2015,
from
https://www.smartrecovery.org/resources/library/Tools_and_Homework/Other_Homework/Values_and_Goals_Clarific
ation.pdf
Website:
http://www.goodtherapy.org/learn-about-therapy/issues/values-clarification
Retrieved
from