Creative Hopelessness Paper

Creative hopelessness is an Acceptance and Commitment Therapy technique which focuses on helping the client become open to the idea that endeavoring to control our thoughts and feelings ultimately impedes our ability to live a rich, full, productive life. In other words, we can become so focused on controlling our thoughts and feelings that we are not living our lives to the fullest. For a client pushing thoughts and feeling away with substances, creative helplessness can help clients recognize what purpose substances hold in their lives and how substance use is affecting their lives. To evoke creative hopelessness within our clients, Harris (2009) outlines three questions which can help clients begin to recognize how controlling thoughts and feelings is keeping them from living their strongest life. The first question outlined by Harris (2009) is: “what have you tried doing to get rid of these difficult thoughts and feelings?” (pg. 84) Talking about what has been tried to avoid difficult thoughts and feelings to help …show more content…
Contact with the present moment is found by becoming mindful and learning to be present in the current moment. Harris (2009) breaks down mindfulness into three components: noticing, letting go of thoughts, and letting feelings be. An exercise which can help clients become mindful is to mindfully eat a raisin. When mindfully eating a raisin, having the client move through focusing on the following components of the raisin: noticing the shape, color and weight of the raisin; feeling the raisin and noticing its texture and squishy contours; smelling the raisin and noticing its scent; and eating through the raisin, pausing to recognize how the raisin feels in your mouth, on your tongue, and against your lips. As clients practice and progress in mindfulness, you can help them become aware of self-defeating thoughts, feelings, and