Simplify Healing
A Wise Effort map for trauma work: get curious, open up, focus your energy.
Bring one client to mind
Choose one client you're working with on trauma. You'll walk through the Wise Effort framework with them in mind, and leave with a simple map for your next session.
Keep it private
Use a nickname or initials only. Your answers stay in this browser and are never sent anywhere.
Who are you thinking of?
What brings them to you?
What are they struggling with? What does "stuck" look like for them right now?
Step 1 · Get Curious
What is keeping them stuck?
Three patterns tend to keep people stuck in trauma. Tap any that fit, then add their own words.
Avoiding pain Experiential avoidance
What do they avoid feeling? How do they avoid?
Stuck in thoughts Cognitive fusion
What thoughts and stories do they get caught in?
Holding on too tight Experiential attachment
What are they gripping or trying to control?
These all make sense
- Their biology is doing its job.
- Their mind is trying to help.
- They're doing their best to get through it.
Creative hopelessness
What have they tried to feel better? How has it worked in the short term, and in the long term? What has it cost them?
Step 1 · Get Curious
What are their values?
The aim isn't just to name a value. It's to help them make experiential contact with what living it would mean to them.
Values questions
What is a fulfilling life to them? How do they want to show up? What is most important to them? What is worth their energy?
Sore spot Pain to values
What is most troubling them? What does that pain tell you they care about?
Sweet spot Values to pain
When did they last experience sweetness? What did it hold that matters to them?
Their values in a few words
Step 1 · Get Curious
What is their genius?
Their strengths, talents, interests, personality, character strengths and emotional intelligence. What's strong in them, not just what's wrong.
Character strengths
The last time they faced something hard, what strengths did they show?
Emotional intelligence
When they're at their best, how do they show up for others? What helps them steady when things get hard?
Genius in healing
How could their strengths, talents and emotional intelligence help them now? How can their unique genius support healing?
Step 2 · Open Up
Open up
To feeling, to their mind, and to their wise self.
Open up to feeling Acceptance
Get present, then turn toward, a little at a time. Offer choice and invite consent. What feeling could they turn toward? How will you widen their window of flexibility?
Acceptance is not
Approval · Liking it · Being passive · Allowing for harm, abuse or oppression · Resigning · Giving up
Acceptance is
Willingness · Allowing · Making space · Curiosity · Openness · Letting go · Courage
Open up your mind Cognitive defusion
You can have a thought without it running your life. What thought could they step back from or hold lightly? Which of their mind's rules could they break?
Open up to their wise self Compassion
How could they give compassion to others, receive it, and offer it to themselves?
Step 3 · Focus Your Energy
Focus their energy
Small steps, using their strengths, toward their values, with compassion. This is the choice point.
One small step
What is one small, doable move they could make this week?
Using their strengths
Which part of their genius will they bring to it?
Toward their values
Which value does this step move them toward?
With compassion
How can they meet themselves with kindness if it's hard, or if it doesn't go as planned?
For you, the therapist
Where do you want to focus your own energy in your next session with them?
Your case map
Everything in one place. Your answers stay in this browser only. Copy them into your own notes, and leave out anything identifying.
ACT Tools
A library of practical PDFs you can download and use right away.
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ACT: Identify Your Personal Values
Clarify what truly matters to them—across relationships, work, health, and more.
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Cognitive Defusion Technique
Notice and name negative thoughts and create space between their inner dialogue and their lived experience.
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Being Present: Coming Home To This Moment
Gently return to the present moment using mindfulness and ACT-based exercises.
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Perspective Taking — Finding Your Flexible Self
Explore multiple perspectives with greater psychological flexibility and self-awareness.
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Acceptance — Making Space for What’s Hard
Acknowledge distressing thoughts and emotions without judgment. Grounded in acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT)
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Committed Action — Creating the Life You Want to Live
Explore meaningful values and turn them into specific, realistic goals.
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What Is Psychological Flexibility?
Use this resource to explore how greater flexibility supports mental health, resilience, and long-term well-being.
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Energy Audit Worksheet
Reduce energy drains and increase energy gains by applying Wise Effort to various life domains.