Values cards are exactly as they sound. Each card states a personal quality, such as courageous, involved, genuine or empathetic. The importance and meaning of the words will vary between students, as they will identify with and respond to them differently. The cards can be great goal setting tools where values are selected and discussed. Barriers and support can be identified and steps towards achieving value based goals can be set and measured. A specific examination into strengths-based career counseling revealed that over 80% of strengths-based intervention clients reported achieving their goals three months later, in comparison to 60% of traditionally coached clients (Littman-Ovadia et al., 2014; Burke, 2018).

What is standing in the way of you developing this strength? Name your obstacles and brainstorm how you can overcome them. Get them to place these strengths in the “pond” (a pile of cards or a circle made from blue paper or fabric).Finally, the results lead to prioritizing personal goals that align with high-ranked values. Willingness, Goals, and Action Plan A great way to help clients connect with core values is to have them notice where the values were linked to past positive experiences. Have them think about a time that was amazing, perhaps an achievement, or something that went really well. Get them to notice which of their core values it resonated with. Conversely, they can think of a time that was horrible, maybe a negative experience, something stressful or upsetting, and notice which of the core values the event went against… This simple exercise lets us demonstrate to clients how their core values are an inherent part of how they react and respond to situations.

ACTivate Your Life: Using acceptance and mindfulness to build a life that is rich, fulfilling and fun Recognizing Your Strengths is an open-ended, reflective activity where individuals examine their strengths in specific situations or events, be they hobbies and interests or the workplace. The developer of the cards, Dr. Louise Hayes has chosen to share the cards to raise money for a village health service in Nepal. Her hope is that if you find these cards useful, you will consider making a small values based donation to Sanjiwani Health Service. To find out more or donate, please go to: If you are not quite ready to embark on this incredible course, you might want to consider a collection of tools first. For science-based ways to help others discover meaning, this collection contains 17 validated meaning tools for practitioners. Use them to help others choose directions for their lives in alignment with what is truly important to them. A Take-Home MessagePrint and cut out the attached Workplace Strength Cards, and guide your client through the following activities sequentially. 1. “What do I bring to the table?” Mostly we act in accordance with our values to maintain a sense of well-being. But often our values are compromised by circumstances or events and we do things that don’t feel right. When we do things that are at odds with our values, we feel uncomfortable. Living in a situation where it is a constant struggle to act according to our values can cause stress, anxiety and depression.

Once you’ve marked each value as V, Q, N (Very, Quite, or Not so important), go through all the Vs, and select out the top 5 that are most important to you. Mark each one with a X, to show it’s in your top 5.

These cards are aimed at practitioners who already have some knowledge of DNA-V and values-based work with young people. They are fun, vibrant and aim to be used with young people in an experiential way. They come in a handy box so you can keep them -well – to hand!