Using ACT With Core Beliefs, Narratives, and Schemas - Ebook

USING ACT WITH CORE
BELIEFS, NARRATIVES,
AND SCHEMAS
USEFUL TIPS FOR ACT PRACTITIONERS
by Dr Russ Harris,
Author of The Happiness Trap and ACT Made Simple
© Russ Harris 2023 TheHappinessTrap.com | ImLearningACT.com

BELIEFS, STORIES, SCHEMAS, THEMES,
NARRATIVES
We all have recurrent ‘problematic’ repertoires of cognition and emotion: predictable patterns
of thinking/feeling that dominate our actions or our awareness in ways that pull us away from
effective, values-congruent behaviour. Typically, these repertoires centre around key themes,
such as abandonment, rejection, failure, unworthiness, and so on.
In many models (including ACT, CBT, REBT, DBT, EMDR, Schema Therapy, Narrative Therapy,
and many, many others) the active noticing and naming and exploring of these cognitive/
emotional repertoires is an important part of therapy.
Some models give these cognitive/emotional repertoires a technical name, such as ‘narrative’,
‘schema’, or ‘core belief’. In ACT, we can freely use any of those terms just mentioned - but
typically we use more common, everyday language, such as ‘stories’ or ‘themes’. (Occasionally,
clients may react negatively to the term ‘story’; they may interpret it as dismissive or a sign that
the therapist doesn’t believe them. In my personal experience, this is rare, and it’s usually easily
rectified - but if you want to avoid this risk, it’s best to stick to ‘theme’ rather than ‘story’.)
In ACT, we typically uncover a theme/core belief/narrative/schema/story through careful,

curious exploration - and then we help the client to come up with a name for it - e.g. the
‘unlovable’ theme, or the ‘failure’ story. However, at times it’s useful to have a ‘shortcut’ for
rapidly identifying key themes: a list that you can give to clients, so you can ask if they relate
to anything listed. For example, here’s a client handout of 12 common ‘themes’ that each link
together a whole range of beliefs, attitudes, judgments, memories, feelings, emotions, and
urges. You can think of each ‘theme’ as an overarching, easily-triggered, deeply entrenched
pattern of fusion: 12 Key Themes For another example, here’s a client handout on themes that
specifically affect relationships: Relationship Roadblocks

COGNITIVE FLEXIBILITY
There’s a popular misconception that ACT ‘doesn’t change your thinking.’ But ACT does
change our thinking—dramatically. It changes the way we think about our minds, our bodies,
our thoughts, our emotions, how we want to live, who we want to be, why we do what we do,
what matters to us, and so on.
However, ACT doesn’t achieve this by challenging, disputing, disproving, or invalidating

thoughts. Nor does it encourage people to avoid, suppress, distract from, or dismiss their
thoughts. ACT helps people to change their thinking through (a) defusing from unhelpful
cognitions and cognitive processes and (b) developing new, more effective ways of thinking,
in addition to their other cognitive patterns.
In other words, we don’t get to eliminate old, unhelpful cognitive repertoires; there’s no delete
button in the brain. But even though we can’t subtract old patterns of thinking, we can - and
do - add in new ones. Above and beyond fostering cognitive defusion, in ACT we actively
cultivate cognitive flexibility. ACT practitioners teach, model, and reinforce effective, life-
enhancing cognitive processes such as flexible perspective taking, reframing, compassionate
self-talk, values-based problem solving, motivational self-instruction, examining behavior in
terms of workability, non-judgmental labelling of thoughts and feelings, and so on.
So what’s all this got to do with a core belief/narrative/schema/story/theme? (By the way,
from now on, for the sake of brevity, I’ll mostly stick to the catch-all term ‘theme’.) Well,
although we can’t delete that theme, we can reduce its impact, take its power away. And
we can develop more helpful, compassionate, flexible repertoires of cognition to help us act
more effectively, make better choices, treat ourselves better, and so on – freeing us from the
limits and restrictions of the theme. We can do this in many ways, using all the core ACT
processes; and we never need to challenge, dispute, disprove, or invalidate the content of the
‘problematic’ cognitions. How so? That’s what we’ll explore in the rest of this eBook!

NOTICE, NAME & NORMALISE
We lay the foundations for both defusion and acceptance by helping clients to notice, name and
normalise their thoughts and feelings.
We can encourage clients to notice with curiosity and non-judgmentally name any thought,
feeling, emotion, sensation, urge or memory that’s connected to the theme: e.g. I’m noticing the
‘useless theme’, My mind’s telling me the ‘loser story’, Here’s my ‘abandonment schema’ again!,
I’m having thoughts about others letting me down, Aha! It’s the ‘core belief show’, It’s ‘theme
time’ again.
We also do a massive amount of normalising in ACT. Often we do this through generalisations -

‘This is really common. Almost everyone has stuff like this showing up’- or self-disclosure: ‘Your
mind is a lot like mine!’ However, one of the most important and powerful ways to normalise is to
look at the origins of the theme. We may ask:
• ‘How old is this theme? How far back does it go?’
• ‘At what age did it first start showing up? What was going on in your life at that time?’
• ‘How do you think your mind was trying to help you, when it came up with this?’
• ‘What was your mind trying to help you get or avoid, back then?’
This helps clients to see that the core belief/schema/theme/narrative/story was a perfectly
natural and normal response to the challenges they were facing back when it started. This
sort of work is especially emphasised in ‘Trauma-Focused ACT’. (To know more about TFACT,
read this first chapter from the textbook.)

PURPOSE
After we notice, name and normalise a theme, a powerful next step is to look at its
‘purpose’: the ways in which it’s ‘trying to help’. We may explore questions such as:
• What’s it trying to help you escape or avoid?
• What’s it trying to help you get or achieve?
• What’s it trying to help you do differently?
• What’s it trying to help you learn?
• What’s it trying to tell you is important, really matters?
• What’s it trying to tell you about looking after yourself or others?
We often modify these questions, to mention the mind, brain, or body:
• ‘When your mind tells you this, what’s it trying to help you escape or avoid?’
• ‘When your brain generates this stuff, what’s it trying to help you get or achieve?’
• ‘Your mind and body are working together to create all these thoughts and feelings; what
do you think they’re trying to tell you is important?’
When we uncover the ‘purpose’ of a theme (or the ‘purpose’ of your mind/brain/body in
generating it) this helps to normalise it, validate it, and explain why it keeps recurring. This not
only helps to foster defusion, but also paves the way for acceptance.
In Trauma-Focused ACT we often modify these questions to explore the childhood origins of
a theme. For example: When your mind first started telling you this stuff, way back then, what
do you think it was trying to protect you from? What was it trying to help you escape or avoid?
What was it trying to help you get, that you needed? What was it trying to warn you?

WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN THIS STUFF
SHOWS UP?
You’ll note throughout these pages I often use the term ‘cognitive/emotional repertoire’. This is to
remind us that when we’re working with a theme, we’re not dealing solely with cognitions. There
are often strong emotions, urges, and sensations that co-occur as part of the experience - and
if we neglect these important elements, and focus exclusively on cognition, we are likely to get
stuck.
So after identifying a theme, we want to explore: When this theme shows up, what sorts of
emotions, sensations, urges go with it? Or memories, thoughts, images?
Once we’ve identified these elements, we want to explore how the client typically responds
to them. We may ask questions like: ‘So when you get hooked by that theme/ this stuff/ that
schema/ this core belief/ these thoughts and feelings ….what do you usually do?’ We can then
go on to explore that behaviour in terms of ‘workability’.

WORKABILITY
When we explore the ‘workability’ of a behaviour, that basically means we identify and validate
its ‘benefits’ or ‘payoffs’, and compassionately highlight its costs.
To identify payoffs (technically known as ‘reinforcing consequences’), we can explore: What

does this behaviour help you gain that you want? What does it help you escape or avoid that
you don’t want?
After validating the payoffs of the client’s behaviours (i.e. what they do in response to their
theme) we then compassionately explore the costs. For example: do these behaviours take
them towards or away from … their goals/ what matters/ the person they want to be/ their
values/ the life they want to lead/ the relationships they want to build? How do these behaviours
impact their health, wellbeing, work, relationships, and so on?
It’s often helpful to bring in questions like: ‘If you let this theme guide you/push you around/
dictate your choices/tell you what to do - where does it take you? Towards or away from the
life you want to build/the person you want to be/ the things you want to do?’ Once clients
recognise their habitual patterns of responding to the theme are unworkable, we can explore
alternatives.

DEFUSION
As we run through the fivefold strategy of notice, name, normalise, purpose, workability, it
usually fosters quite a lot of defusion. We can then go further and bring in just about any of the
100+ defusion techniques so far described in ACT textbooks: anything from ‘leaves on a stream’
and ‘thoughts on cards’ to ‘thought-ticking’ or ‘thanking your mind’.
ACCEPTANCE
Acceptance is a big part of the work with core beliefs/schemas/themes/narratives/stories.
We help clients learn how to open up and make room for all the thoughts, feelings, emotions,
sensations, memories, images and urges that are ‘linked together’ by the theme we’re targeting.
To do this, we can use any combination of dozens of different acceptance techniques in ACT.
Acceptance also comes into play when we encourage clients to act against or disobey or ‘step
outside of’ the core belief/schema/theme - and flexibly act on their values instead. Choosing to
do some new, values-congruent behaviour (instead of what they typically do when this theme
shows up) is guaranteed to trigger many uncomfortable thoughts and feelings, especially
anxiety; so we need to help clients learn how to open up and make room for this discomfort.

DROPPING ANCHOR
‘Dropping anchor’ is an umbrella terms for literally hundreds of exercises all flexibly built on
the ACE formula (A – acknowledging thoughts and feelings; C – connecting with your body;
E – engaging in what you’re doing.) When these core beliefs/schemas/themes resurface (often
accompanied by difficult memories, urges, sensations, emotions) it’s often helpful to drop
anchor. Dropping anchor switches you off autopilot and reduces the impact of the cognitive/
emotional repertoire over your behaviour. It also helps you to get present and regain control
over your actions.
So it’s a very useful first line strategy – especially when clients are extremely fused or
overwhelmed by emotion. (Remember, in such states, standard defusion techniques will rarely
if ever work.)

SELF-COMPASSION
Self-compassion - acknowledging your pain and responding with kindness – is a central
element of ACT. When these schemas/narratives/core beliefs arise, they are painful; and
often they are accompanied by painful memories/urges/emotions/sensations. So we help
clients to acknowledge their pain, and respond with kindness.
Self-compassion is a central element of the ACT model, involving all six core processes:
acknowledging your suffering (present moment); unhooking from self-judgment defusion);
opening up and making room for painful thoughts and feelings (acceptance); tapping into values
of kindness, caring and support and translating them into kind self-talk, kind imagery, kind
actions, and kind deeds (values and committed action); taking the observer perspective (self-as-
context: observer self); and common humanity (self-as-context: flexible perspective taking)
ACT-style ‘inner child’ imagery and rescripting is particularly useful for developing self-
compassion, especially when the theme has its origins in a traumatic or neglectful childhood.
And of course, self-compassion of any kind is a powerful antidote to the negative self-image and
low self-worth ‘at the centre’ of many themes.

VALUES & COMMITTED ACTION
We can explore: What values does this theme/schema/core belief remind you of or connect you
to? (This is usually quite easy to uncover if we have first explored the ‘purpose’ questions
discussed earlier.)
We can also explore: What values do you want to bring into play when this theme shows up?
And how can you put those values into action; what would you say and do?
We especially want to explore:
 What can you do that’s different to/goes against/ breaks you free from the shackles of this
schema/theme/core belief?
 What’s it like when you act on your values instead of obeying your mind/letting the story
define you/letting the theme dictate what you do/letting the schema push you around?
 When this stuff shows up, you have choices: what actions would take you towards the life
you want, and what actions would take you away? (Obviously a client needs basic
unhooking skills - defusion, acceptance etc – before we’d ask a question like this. Without
those skills, clients have little or no choice.)

THE CHOICE POINT
The choice point is one of my favourite tools in ACT. (If you don’t know it, read more here.) It
offers a very simple way to get started: you write the schema/core belief/theme at the bottom
of the diagram, along with the emotions/urges/memories etc that go with it.
Then, you explore what the client does in response to the theme. If those responses are
workable – taking them towards their goals/ what matters/ the person they want to be/ their
values/ the life they want to lead/ the relationships they want to build – they go on the towards
arrow. And if they’re unworkable – taking them away from all that stuff – they go on the away
arrow. From there, you’re off and running: exploring new, more workable ways of responding,
bringing in ‘unhooking skills’, and so on.

FLEXIBLE PERSPECTIVE-TAKING
You may recall that there are two different (but interconnected) meanings of self-as-context.
One meaning is that of the ‘observer self’ or ‘noticing self’ (which we’ll look at shortly). The other
meaning is ‘flexible perspective taking’ (FPT). We can divide FPT interventions into two broad
(but overlapping) classes. One class includes all the mindfulness skills: defusion, acceptance,
dropping anchor, and so on. All these skills involve flexibly changing your perspective: what you
notice and how you notice it.
The other class of FPT interventions includes cognitive skills that develop our ability to perceive
events and understand concepts from alternative points of view—in everyday language, to ‘see
things differently’ or ‘look at things differently’ or ‘think about things differently.’
For example, some FPT exercises invite the client to imagine himself in the future looking back on
his life today, and from that perspective, reflect on his current behavior. Others involve ‘inner-
child’ work, where the client imagines his current-day adult self traveling back in time to comfort,
care for, advise or support a younger version of himself. Yet others explore questions like: "If your
roles were reversed/ if you were in their shoes, how would you be feeling?", "If something similar
happened to someone you love, what would you say to them/ do for them?", "Would you treat
someone you love the same way you're treating yourself?"

Flexible Perspective Taking: Some Useful Questions
• Is there a different way you could think about this that would help you to live your values?
• Is there another way to look at this, that might help you to act more effectively, behave more like
the person you want to be?
• Is there another way to think about this, that might help you to handle the situation better?
• If you were really able to bring your values into play here – the ones you mentioned before
about being XYZ - how might you think about this differently?
• Is there another way of looking at this situation that might help you handle it better, in a way
that’s healthier for your relationship?
• Is there another way to look at this, in line with that value of being kind to yourself?
There are similarities here to the traditional CBT strategy of cognitive reappraisal; the big
differences are that there’s (a) no disputation of cognitive content and (b) no attempt to escape,
avoid, or control emotions. We defuse from unhelpful cognitions, accept our emotions, then
take a new perspective on (or ‘think differently about’) the issue to enable effective, values-
guided action.
1. Unhook from your initial 'reactive' thoughts (eg. 'Here's that old theme again!')
2. Consider: What values do I want to bring into play?
3. Consider: How can I look at this/think about this in a different way, that could help me
to act more effectively?
(Note: we don’t have to follow this order. Steps 2 and 3 are interchangeable. And if clients
aren’t hooked by unhelpful cognitions, they can skip step 1.)
Presenting New 'Contradictory' Information

We can present clients with new information that 'contradicts' their narrative, without any
need to directly dispute the content of their thoughts (what's the evidence for/against this,
etc). We can simply say, 'So your mind says/ your belief is/ your thoughts are ... X, Y and
Z. And that's certainly a valid perspective. And I wonder if you'd be open to some new
information that I think you might find interesting.' We can then share the relevant
information and ask, 'What do you make of that? How might this be helpful?'

Some Tips For Harsh Self-judgments
When clients express harsh, self-judgmental, self-critical, or self-loathing cognitions in session, and
we're feeling the urge to dispute or challenge those comments, there are several ways we can
respond in an ACT-congruent manner that will usually foster defusion. For example:
T: I find it really painful, seeing how your mind keeps beating you up/ judging you/ criticising you.
What's it like for you, to be on the receiving end of all that judgment/ those insults?
T: I wish you could see yourself the way that I see you; it's so different to what your mind says!
T: I don't agree with what your mind is saying here, and I'm feeling a strong urge to debate it with
you ... but I'm guessing that would be a waste of time. I don't think I'll be able to prove your mind
wrong ... do you? It's pretty determined that "this is how it is!" So let's not waste our time debating
it. But can we take a moment to explore why your mind talks to you this way; what's its purpose in
saying all these harsh things about you?
T: How often does your mind say these things to you? Can you see how harsh and unkind they
are? I must admit, I flinch when I hear you say them aloud; it's just so harsh, and unrelenting.
T: Do you notice how your mind is so quick to judge, criticise, label you? What's it like for you when
your mind does that? What kind of feelings show up?
T: How far back does this go? What's the earliest you can recall your mind speaking to you that
way?
These initial comments pave the way for all the interventions mentioned earlier.

THE NOTICING SELF
One of the main benefits of working experientially to ‘develop’ the noticing self or observer self,
is that it helps clients to defuse from their conceptualised self: to experience that ‘There’s more
to me than this story of who I am’. This kind of work is useful with any core belief/schema/
theme/narrative/story. When you ‘take the observer perspective’, you can see this theme for
what it is: a ‘construction’ of thoughts, images, memories, emotions, urges and sensations,
changing from moment to moment; it’s not ‘who you are’, but rather, ‘stuff passing through’.
Especially useful here are those long ‘observing-self’ or ‘continuous you’ exercises: meditative
exercises that help you to be ‘the observer’ of your mind. (‘Leaves on a stream’ can serve the
same purpose.) The ‘Many Selves’ exercise is also very useful.

IN SUMMARY
In ACT, there are many ways to work with core beliefs, schemas, narratives, stories
and themes (without ever needing to directly dispute or challenge cognitive content
in terms of whether it's true or false, or look for evidence to disprove it, etc). The
single biggest sticking point for ACT newbies is to over-rely on defusion; all parts of
the ACT model are important when doing this work.
Well, here’s hoping that’s been of some help.
Good luck with it all,

Cheers, Russ Harris
(P.S. If you’re looking for more ACT training, you may like to check out the last
page of this eBook.)

About Russ
Dr. Russ Harris is an inter ationally best-selling author, medical doctor,
psychotherapist, life coa , and consultant to the World Health Organisation. He
has directly trained over 0,000 psychological health professionals in the ACT
model (in Australia, Euro e, UK and USA), and his textbook for professionals, “ACT
Made Simple”, has sold o er 100,000 copies. Of the nine books he has written, the
best known is The Happi ess Trap, which has sold over one million copies, and
been translated into thir languages.
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USING ACT WITH CORE

© Russ Harris 2023 TheHappinessTrap.com | ImLearningACT.com

In ACT, we typically uncover a theme/core belief/narrative/schema/story through careful,

© Russ Harris 2023 TheHappinessTrap.com | ImLearningACT.com

However, ACT doesn’t achieve this by challenging, disputing, disproving, or invalidating

© Russ Harris 2023 TheHappinessTrap.com | ImLearningACT.com

We also do a massive amount of normalising in ACT. Often we do this through generalisations -

• ‘How old is this theme? How far back does it go?’

© Russ Harris 2023 TheHappinessTrap.com | ImLearningACT.com

• What’s it trying to help you escape or avoid?

• What’s it trying to help you get or achieve?

• What’s it trying to help you do differently?

• What’s it trying to help you learn?

• What’s it trying to tell you is important, really matters?

• What’s it trying to tell you about looking after yourself or others?

We often modify these questions, to mention the mind, brain, or body:

do you think they’re trying to tell you is important?’

© Russ Harris 2023 TheHappinessTrap.com | ImLearningACT.com

© Russ Harris 2023 TheHappinessTrap.com | ImLearningACT.com

To identify payoffs (technically known as ‘reinforcing consequences’), we can explore: What

© Russ Harris 2023 TheHappinessTrap.com | ImLearningACT.com

© Russ Harris 2023 TheHappinessTrap.com | ImLearningACT.com

© Russ Harris 2023 TheHappinessTrap.com | ImLearningACT.com

acknowledging your suffering (present moment); unhooking from self-judgment defusion);

© Russ Harris 2023 TheHappinessTrap.com | ImLearningACT.com

We especially want to explore:

© Russ Harris 2023 TheHappinessTrap.com | ImLearningACT.com

© Russ Harris 2023 TheHappinessTrap.com | ImLearningACT.com

© Russ Harris 2023 TheHappinessTrap.com | ImLearningACT.com

the person you want to be?

that’s healthier for your relationship?

2. Consider: What values do I want to bring into play?

to act more effectively?

Presenting New 'Contradictory' Information

© Russ Harris 2023 TheHappinessTrap.com | ImLearningACT.com

saying all these harsh things about you?

your mind does that? What kind of feelings show up?

© Russ Harris 2023 TheHappinessTrap.com | ImLearningACT.com

© Russ Harris 2023 TheHappinessTrap.com | ImLearningACT.com

Well, here’s hoping that’s been of some help.

Good luck with it all,

© Russ Harris 2023 TheHappinessTrap.com | ImLearningACT.com

Online Training In ACT

ACT for Beginners

ACT for Depression nd Anxiety Disorders

ACT for Adolescents

ACT as a Brief Interv ntion

ACT for Grief and Lo

ACT for Perfectionis and People Pleasing

For Health and Mental Health ofessionals

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