What is Values-Based Therapy?
For those seeking to reconnect with themselves, values-based therapy can be a transformative way to rediscover who you are. As a licensed therapist in Denver, I recognize how hard it can be to feel disconnected from yourself, and overwhelmed and exhausted by persistent mental health symptoms. Values-based therapy can serve as a grounding way to come back to who you are—or discover your true self, if you had not been given the opportunity to in childhood.
More specifically, values-based therapy is a therapeutic approach that helps individuals identify, connect with, and live in alignment with their values. When people process and clarify what gives their life meaning and fulfillment, they can make choices and take actions that feel more authentic and intentional.
Before we get started, if you're in the Denver area, I invite you to book a consultation, and let's explore how I can support you on your journey toward healing.
How are values described?
Values are the qualities or characteristics that feel deeply important to a person. Values are an ongoing, guiding lens that provide meaning to our experiences and choices.
Values are:
Freely chosen: They come from within; Not imposed by others, but discovered through self-reflection.
Ongoing: You can never “complete” a value - it's a continuous practice.
Qualities of action: They describe how you want to show up in the world. For example:
Compassion: "I want to treat others (and myself) with kindness."
Authenticity: "I want to be real and true to myself, even when it’s hard."
Courage: "I want to take action despite fear when something matters to me."
Personal and subjective: What’s deeply important to one person may not resonate with another.
Values are not:
Goals: Goals are destinations, whereas values are directions.
“Shoulds” or societal expectations: A value is not what you’ve been told you should care about, but what actually brings meaning to you.
Pleasant feelings: While living in alignment with values often brings a sense of fulfillment, it can also be uncomfortable, such as when acting from a place of values means setting a hard boundary.
Categories of Common Values:
Here are a few domains where people often find meaningful values:
Relationships: love, intimacy, honesty, connection
Work and learning: curiosity, growth, contribution, creativity
Self-care: self-respect, balance, health, rest
Community: justice, service, inclusion, connection
Values can become especially important in therapy when an individual feels lost, fragmented, or unsure of who they are after trauma. Reconnecting with values can help you reclaim agency and make choices that move you toward healing and wholeness.
Therapeutic Modalities that focus on Values
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is one of the most well-known values-based modalities. In ACT, values are seen as a compass: even when life is painful or uncertain, staying oriented toward your values can help guide you through difficulty with purpose and resilience. Some of my favorite values-based aspects of ACT include:
Clarifying what truly matters to you: Your chosen life directions. These are your “why” for behavior change. With ACT, clients are encouraged to explore what kind of person they want to be, what they want to stand for, and what brings their life meaning.
Committed Action: Taking value-driven steps, even when it's uncomfortable. This involves setting goals that align with values and persistently moving toward them with flexibility and self-compassion. It’s not about perfection—it's about progress that honors what's meaningful.
Narrative Therapy
Narrative therapy is based on the belief that we construct meaning from our experiences through the stories we tell. Sometimes, these stories are shaped by external influences—family expectations, societal pressures, or past wounds—that don’t reflect our true selves. In rewriting our narratives, we can have more agency in living the life we want to live, rather than the life that others may think we should be living. It works with values by:
Addressing dominant discourses: Dominant discourses are the “shoulds” or messages we have received throughout our lives. In reexamining these messages, it gives us space to determine if they fit within our own set of values.
Discover your preferred narrative: If the dominant discourses don’t fit within your preferred narrative—who you’d like to be and the ways you’d like to show up in the world—narrative therapy gives you the opportunity to get in touch with your values and reclaim your truths.
Curious to learn more about narrative therapy? Check out my recent blog post here!
Existential Therapy
Existential therapy helps individuals grapple with life’s big questions: What gives my life meaning? What kind of life do I want to live? Who am I in the context of the systems I operate in/am affected by? Here are ways in which existential therapy holds values-based work:
Exploration of personal meaning: Clients are invited to reflect on their values, priorities, and sense of purpose.
Alignment work: Existential therapy helps clients clarify and live in accordance with what feels true and vital.
How Values based Therapy Can Help
Trauma often leaves people feeling disconnected from themselves: their body, their voice, their relationships, and from their sense of meaning and direction. It can create a sense that life is reduced to survival, and that identity is defined by what happened rather than by who they are at their core.
Values-based work gently invites individuals back into connection with their innate wholeness, helping them remember that:
You are more than your trauma. You are someone who has always carried wisdom, core beliefs, values, and goals that trauma may have obscured, but not erased.
Here’s how values-based work can support trauma healing:
1. Reclaiming Agency
Trauma often involves an overwhelming loss of control. Values work reorients individuals toward choice and intentionality.
Instead of focusing only on symptom reduction, values-based work helps clients ask, “What kind of life do I want to create, even in holding in mind what happened?”
This shift restores a sense of authorship and agency.
2. Grounding into meaning
Trauma can shatter previous sources of meaning—relationships, roles, beliefs. Values offer an internal compass when the external world feels unsafe or confusing.
In therapy, individuals can explore: “What still matters to me?” and “What kind of person do I want to be, even in pain?”
3. Affirming Identity Beyond the Trauma
Many trauma survivors may develop narratives that their identity is tied to what they experienced. Values-based work helps uncover more nuanced narratives:
“I value compassion - I’ve always cared for others, even when I was hurting.”
“I want to live with honesty, even though trauma taught me to hide.”
This work gently amplifies preferred narratives of strength, dignity, and hope.
4. Supporting Integration, Not Avoidance
Rather than bypassing or suppressing pain, values work (especially when integrated with ACT, EMDR, or IFS) helps individuals make space for discomfort while still choosing meaningful action. This can be deeply empowering for individuals who feel exhausted in cycles of depression, anxiety, or stuck patterns.
5. Creating a Future-Oriented Path
Trauma often pulls people into the past (flashbacks and dissociation) or traps them in a heightened state of anxiety or hypervigilance in the present. Values-based work asks:
“What kind of relationships do you want now?”
“What brings you a sense of aliveness or purpose?”
“How do you value showing up in the world?”
Even tiny actions aligned with values can build momentum toward a life that feels more joyous and self-directed.
If you’re curious about how to begin living in alignment with your values and core self, I’d love to support you on your journey. Therapy can be a space to heal from past wounds, rediscover who you are, and feel fulfilled in your everyday. Contact me today to get started!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Gigi Woodall, LMFT
Eating Disorder & Trauma Therapist in Denver
Hi, I’m Gigi—a Denver-based trauma therapist passionate about helping people heal and reconnect with themselves. My work focuses on exploring how early experiences, relationships, and protective parts of the self shape our inner narratives. Through a compassionate and individualized approach, I help clients challenge limiting beliefs and step into a more authentic, intuitive way of living.
My background includes working with organizations like the National Eating Disorders Association, Project HEAL, and the One Love Foundation. I’ve also worked in eating disorder treatment centers and am actively involved with the Eating Disorder Foundation and IAEDP’s Denver chapter. Currently, I’m on the path to becoming a Certified Eating Disorder Specialist (CEDS).
With specialized training in Internal Family Systems (IFS), EMDR, and eating disorder treatment, I provide a safe, supportive space for those navigating recovery, trauma, and self-discovery.
Looking for support on your healing journey? Book a free consultation to see if we’re a good fit.