Values in psychotherapy: a catalyst for behavior change

There is nothing more important for humans than the pursuit of what gives our lives meaning. Our personal values can serve as our guiding principles, defining who we are and directing where we go next. For the most passionate of our values, many would face great suffering or even death in the knowledge that they would be fulfilled. In 2011, a street vendor in Tunisia doused himself in paint thinner and lit himself on fire in an effort to stand up against decades of oppression and corruption in his country, setting off the Arab Spring. Many activists have since followed, trying to change a world they would never see. Values have the power to guide our behavior without external reinforcement, allowing ordinary actions to bring us deep satisfaction (Berghof et al. 2018). No other motivator has the ability to make actions as extreme as death seem reasonable. It is not surprising, then, that the identification and use of personal values are essential in understanding psychological well-being and for motivating meaningful change in our lives (Hoyer et al. 2019).