How acting on personal values creates a meaningful life story

Personal narratives have the power not only to heal trauma but also to actively promote well-being. Narratives that align with important personal values provide a solid base for guiding actions that meet challenges and support difficult life decisions. Basing our life story on values can have broad and positive impacts on well-being and on the sense that life is meaningful. Emphasis is placed on caring values because of their significant impact on well-being and their often subtle, hard-to-identify nature. Drawing on research from clinical, counseling, social, organizational and positive psychology, this paper will focus on findings that explain what values are, how they develop, and how they work, with emphasis on how values are useful in therapy. Using a four-step process that includes clarifying, assessing, planning, and increasing motivation, we consider how clients can intentionally increase values-based actions. For each step of the process, we suggest some evidence-based tools and consider why and how to use each tool. Using values in therapy can help clients to meet the challenge of building a life of purpose and meaning by intentionally taking actions on their most prized values.