Member-only story
Your Five-Step Action Plan for Moving Forward
Get ‘unstuck’ and step back into the stream of life.
In the long history of treating depression, one strategy has a particularly good track record: “activity scheduling.” According to John and Rita Sommers-Flanagan, practicing psychotherapists, “behavior therapists…found that changing behavior — all by itself — can produce positive treatment outcomes among clients with depression.” (1) Over time, this correlation has proven to be effective, even after several years of follow-up.
As a registered nurse who has worked with depressed patients, a student of counseling, and an individual who has faced depression, I’ve devised a simple plan for helping myself and others get ‘unstuck’ and step back into the stream of life. This five-step action plan effectively provides structure and helps to increase feelings of self-worth. Taking these positive steps also reduces the intense, unwavering focus on “self” that is common in depressed individuals — and those who simply feel ‘stuck.’
You can tackle each step, one at a time, based on your energy level. Regularly moving through all five steps helps you, on a practical level, to fill your day with productive activities that help you to move forward. Each step, in itself, can encompass a continuum of complexity, allowing you to modify your level…
