What is Values Card Sort?
Values Card Sort is a values clarification exercise from ACT, or Acceptance and Commitment Therapy — a form of cognitive behavioral treatment that emerged in the 1980s. ACT is an intervention that incorporates mindfulness and acceptance strategies, and focuses on functional improvement through increasing engagement in values-based activities. The activity contains two parts: a ranking screen where clients drag 14 value cards into priority order from most to least important, and a reflection screen where they consider how their current behavior aligns with their top values.
How therapists use it
Introduce the activity when you want to anchor treatment goals in what matters to the client. Clarification of patients' life values is important to therapists as focusing on values aids in connecting therapeutic goals with important areas of life. After the client completes the ranking and reflection, review their top values together. The identified value system may become a part of everyday CBT strategies such as time management, cognitive restructuring or accommodation of conditional assumptions. Use the gap between stated values and current behavior as a starting point for committed action.
Who it's for
This activity suits clients across anxiety, depression, PTSD, and grief who are ready to move beyond symptom focus. In ACT, values clarification helps people identify their values, accept the difficult thoughts and feelings that arise in pursuit of them, and commit to values-based action despite the presence of anxiety, depression, or other psychological pain. It works well at intake or when motivation has stalled. It is less suited to clients in acute crisis, those unable to tolerate the gap between values and current reality, or those whose primary need is symptom stabilization before meaning-making work.
What clients see
The client drags value cards into a ranked list, placing their most important value at the top and least important at the bottom. On the second screen, they reflect on how well they are living each of their top three values and what might be getting in the way.
Modality fit
ACT works through six core processes that include values clarification and committed action. Values Card Sort operationalizes the values clarification process, helping clients identify the principles that guide meaningful action before moving into committed action work.
Exploring goals and values is used to elicit the client's own motivation for change, with the key being to explore and discuss the discrepancy between important goals and values and the client's current behavior. This activity surfaces that discrepancy directly.
Solution-focused therapy directs attention toward values-consistent action. By clarifying values first, the activity establishes the direction toward which solutions should point.
In strengths-based therapy, the therapist and client work together to surface the client's abilities, coping skills, and personal qualities, then apply them to current challenges. Values clarification identifies what the client cares about enough to apply their strengths toward.
Clarification of patients' life values is important to therapists as focusing on values aids in connecting therapeutic goals with important areas of life. In CBT, values work grounds behavioral and cognitive interventions in meaningful life domains.
Common questions
When should I use this activity?
Use it at intake to ground treatment in what matters to the client, or when motivation has stalled and you need to reconnect to purpose. It works best when the client is stable enough to tolerate reflection on the gap between values and current behavior.
What if a client's values seem to conflict?
Conflicting values are normal and often reflect real tensions in life. Use the ranking to help the client clarify which matters more in this season, and explore what trade-offs they are willing to make.
How do I use the results in session?
Review the top three values together. Ask what behavior would align with each value, what is currently getting in the way, and what one small action could move them closer. Use values as a compass for goal-setting and as motivation when difficult emotions arise.
Is this the same as goal-setting?
No. Values are directions you want to move in; goals are specific outcomes. You can achieve a goal, but you pursue a value continuously. This distinction matters because anxiety often blocks goals while values can motivate action despite anxiety.
What if a client struggles to choose?
Slow the process. Work through one value domain at a time rather than the whole list. Ask what behavior would reflect that value if anxiety, grief, or shame were still present. The ranking is less important than the reflection.