Three Questions to Help Clients Process and Release Regret

When regret takes hold, many clients spiral into self-criticism and self-blame . . .
. . . and too often, it becomes a debilitating loop that only deepens their regret.
But according to Ron Siegel, PsyD, there are three key questions you might ask to help your client begin to disrupt this cycle and release feelings of regret.
You can read the full blog and more from NICABM here: www.nicabm.com/regret/

[@simonwilliams9850]

The whole premise seems to skip from one extreme (called here 'self-criticism') to another (passive recipient of external forces). It would seem to me as a trauma therapist more ethical to support folk to more fully develop a critical approach, to being aware of and accountable for our own participation in culture. What is being called 'regret' here is very close to shame, which can be something very helpful to work with rather than simply try to get rid of. Out of positions of privilege and entitlement, however unconscious, we can do or be part of incredibly harmful things which should indeed generate regret and shame. This to me would be more 'processing' rather than simply trying to avoid, focusing more on the contingencies etc that are mentioned. It is dangerous to 'naturalise' harmful behaviour. It is a very different thing to recognise that we all make choices (as opposed to absolutely labeling folk as inherently bad or evil), than to generally saying all these choices are ok in a new agey sort of way and moving on in an individually 'evolved' way rather than making more difficult ethical changes in contexts of our relationships and communities

[@Artemis-goddess]

You’re correct. I don’t think they meant those kind of regrets, though.

[@cheowweikoay2601]

@@Artemis-goddess Agree.