Behavioral Activation Tip
Depressed clients often isolate themselves from others and withdraw from life. A depressed client of mine I’ll call Adam did exactly this. He began feeling depressed after his marriage ended. He stopped responding to calls and social invitations from friends and family members. He also stopped going to the gym and gave up his favorite hobby, golfing. When clients withdraw from life, they give up any chance of meaningful or pleasurable experiences, so their depression is more likely to continue and become more intense.
To counter the isolation and withdrawal common to depression, therapists can introduce behavioral activation. This strategy entails getting clients more active and involved in life by scheduling activities that have the potential to improve their mood. Research suggests that behavioral activation alone is an evidence-based treatment for depression, and may be particularly well-suited for chronically depressed clients (Sturmey, 2009). The following tip from the Beck Institute therapists can help make behavioral activation even more effective.
It’s important to focus on valued or meaningful activities instead of, or in addition to pleasurable activities as part of behavioral activation. Many depressed clients (especially those with chronic or severe depression) state that there aren’t any activities that give them a sense of pleasure. They may also come to the following session feeling frustrated and hopeless because they didn’t enjoy the activities as much as they had before they became depressed, or they didn’t enjoy them at all. While emotions and moods are temporary, values tend to be more stable and can serve as a guide for behavioral activation. We can obtain the client’s values by listing different value categories and then asking the client to rate the strength of each category from 0 (not valuing it at all) to 10 (the most they can value something). The categories we include are work, self-education/learning, volunteering, intimacy, family, friendship, religion/spirituality, entertainment/recreation, and health/fitness. Adam’s most valued categories were friendship (10), family (9), recreation/entertainment (8), and health/fitness (8).
The client’s value ratings indicate the best place to begin with behavioral activation. Start with the highest value rating, which, for Adam, was friendship. We ask our clients, “Why is [the value] important to you?” Adam responded that friendship was important to him because it provided mutual support and shared experiences. We then ask the client to list specific, concrete activities that make up the value category. For friendship, Adam’s list of activities included: poker night, golfing, watching sports together, going out to dinner, and regular phone calls. We then repeat these steps for the remaining high value categories. Typically, we won’t ask about a category if the client rated it below a 5 out of 10.
Finally, we help the client decide which valued activities to engage in. Instead of telling the client what to do, we collaboratively ask the client which activities they want to schedule. In his friendship category, Adam decided to call his friend, Matt, to inform him that he would be attending their weekly poker night on Wednesday. During poker night, Adam decided to seek support from his friends by talking about having a difficult time after his divorce and making additional plans for the weekend with whoever was available. He agreed to suggest they play a round of golf on Sunday.
References
Sturmey, P. (2009). Behavioral activation is an evidence-based treatment for depression. Behavior Modification, 33, 818-829.