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?”…