Creative Hopelessness Worksheet Overview
Creative hopelessness is an exercise from acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), developed by psychologist Steven Hayes and colleagues. It looks at how well your efforts to get rid of painful thoughts and feelings have worked over time, and what they have cost you.
This worksheet helps you name the struggle and list what you have tried. It then guides you to look at the pattern and think about what you might do differently, with a note on getting support.
In this worksheet, we’ll:
- Help you name the thoughts and feelings you have been struggling with
- Give you a table to rate what you have tried in the short and long run
- Explain the ACT idea of experiential avoidance
- Share the ACT story of the person in the hole
- Provide space to choose what you want to put your energy into instead
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Hayes, S. C., Strosahl, K. D., & Wilson, K. G. (1999). Acceptance and Commitment Therapy: An Experiential Approach to Behavior Change. Guilford Press.
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Harris, R. (2019). ACT Made Simple: An Easy-to-Read Primer on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (2nd ed.). New Harbinger.
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Hayes, S. C., Luoma, J. B., Bond, F. W., Masuda, A., & Lillis, J. (2006). Acceptance and commitment therapy: Model, processes and outcomes. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 44(1), 1-25.
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