ACT Treatment Formulation for GAD: Setting Goals

Treatment Goals

1. Jane needs to develop psychological flexibility, learning new skills to handle difficult thoughts and feelings more effectively so they create less functional impairment.
   
2. She also needs to increase engagement in activities or actions that personally matter to her, for a richer and more meaningful life.
   1. Under those broad umbrellas, specific aims might be decreased time engaged in rumination and worry, with associated decreases in time spent on such excessive planning and preparing as list making, and on cleaning.
   2. We also want increased mental and behavioral flexibility, including willingness to interrupt routines and choose behavioral responses to anxious thoughts or feelings, as opposed to reactivity in the service of avoidance.
      
3. We want to help Jane clarify personal values and priorities, then see an increase in her engagement in values-consistent action. This may include more leisure and social activities, or an increased sense of connectedness in social relationships.
   
4. Meeting these goals should also increase Jane’s self-reported life satisfaction or quality of life.