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This week we talk to Russ Harris
Russ Harris is a medical practitioner, psychotherapist, and leading expert in acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT). His books include ACT with Love, ACT Made Simple, The Confidence Gap, and The Happiness Trap, which has now been translated into twenty-two languages. He lives in Melbourne, Australia, and travels internationally to train mental health professionals in the ACT approach.
In This Interview, Russ Harris and I Discuss…
- The Wolf Parable
- Getting the wolves to cooperate and not battle
- Embracing even our most difficult feelings
- The Reality Slap and the Reality Gap
- An overview of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
- The Serenity Challenge
- How we always have a chance to improve our situation
- Taking the action that is needed regardless of what we feel
- What “psychological flexibility” is
- Cognitive defusion techniques
- Recognizing that are thoughts are not facts
- Asking the question “Is this thought useful”?
- Noticing and Naming our thoughts and feelings
- “The Greatest Hits” approach
- The “I’m not good enough” story”
- “I’m having the thought that” de-fusion method
- The artificial distinction between thoughts and emotions
- The Struggle Switch
Russ Harris Links
A grandfather is talking with his grandson and he says there are two wolves inside of us which are always at war with each other.
One of them is a good wolf which represents things like kindness, bravery and love. The other is a bad wolf, which represents things like greed, hatred and fear.
The grandson stops and thinks about it for a second then he looks up at his grandfather and says, “Grandfather, which one wins?”
The grandfather quietly replies, the one you feedThe Tale of Two Wolves is often attributed to the Cherokee indians but there seems to be no real proof of this. It has also been attributed to evangelical preacher Billy Graham and Irish Playwright George Bernard Shaw. It appears no one knows for sure but this does not diminish the power of the parable.
This parable goes by many names including:
The Tale of Two Wolves
The Parable of the Two Wolves
Two Wolves
Which Wolf Do You Feed
Which Wolf are You Feeding
Which Wolf Will You Feed
It also often features different animals, mainly two dogs.
sandra says
Hello! I’ve practiced mediation, turning off the switch for the majority of my 72 years. The last 5 years, I have had 2 cycling accidents.. other cyclists not paying attention and riding into me. I’ve had 2 traumatic brain injuries. I had just gotten over the 1st injury when the 2nd one occurred one year ago. This one I have more problems. Short term memory, including reading, post traumatic stress is worse and the emotional part of my brain is damaged. I can’t grieve or show, feel emotions. The fear, the upset, the anger is there but I can’t feel it. It is impossible to describe. The few times I did show emotion, I was told by therapists and doctors that I was mentally ill and should not show feelings that I couldn’t control at the time. My neurologist says that is part of my brain injury. I believe my brain has shut me off from showing emotion and feeling it to protect me. I won’t give up on being myself again. It’s hard since I lost “friends” because I have trouble having a good conversation, remembering words. I do laugh and have fun at times. I’m going to do your therapy. I know of no one where I live that does it. Midwest, U.S. Although I would travel. Thank you for being online.