Triggers and cravings worksheet (pdf)
By
Dr Vlad Burtăverde
Author bio
I am Vlad Burtăverde, PhD, Associate Professor at the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Bucharest. I am a licensed psychotherapist familiar with DBT and CBT. I am an experienced researcher with international visibility, being a PhD in psychometrics and personality psychology. I used many multivariate statistics in the research I did.
Recent work
Burtăverde, V., Jonason, P. K., Giosan, C., & Ene, C. (2021). Why do people watch porn? An evolutionary perspective on the reasons for pornography consumption. Evolutionary Psychology, 19(2), 14747049211028798.https://doi.org/10.1177/14747049211028798
“SOME IMPORTANT MOMENTS IN MY CAREER
2013: I started working as a psychologist and became a member of the Romanian College of Psychologists
2013: I founded the consulting agency in psychology and human resources NEO Assessment & Research
2014: I became a teaching assistant and researcher at the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Bucharest.
2015: I started working as a scientific reviewer for international scientific journals such as the Journal of Risk Research, Personality and Individual Differences, Psychological Reports, Accident Analysis & Prevention.
2015: I became a member of international psychology associations such as: Association for research in Personality, Society for Personality and Social Psychology, European Association of Personality Psychology, World Association for Personality Psychology.
2016: I published the Handbook of Personality Psychology at Trei Publishing House, Bucharest, Romania.
2016: I started collaborating with the research laboratory in Personality Psychology at the University of Groningen under the coordination of Prof. Boele De Raad.
2017: I completed my doctoral studies at the University of Bucharest.
2017: I started working as an associate lecturer at SNSPA, Faculty of Political Sciences, Department of Psychology.
2018: I became an Assistant Professor at the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Bucharest.
2018: I completed my professional training in integrative psychotherapy at the Romanian Institute of Integrative Psychotherapy.
2019: I started working as an associate lecturer at the “Mihai Viteazul” National Academy of Information.
2019: I started the collaboration with the laboratory of Personality, Relationships and Evolutionary Psychology coordinated by Prof. Peter K. Jonason at the University of Padua.
2020: I won through a public competition the postdoctoral research project entitled: Life-history strategies and aggressive driving. An integrative framework for assessing and managing aggressive driving, funded by UEFISCI.
2020: I started working as an associate editor for the scientific journal Frontiers in Psychology – Evolutionary Psychology.
2021: I became an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Bucharest.
2021: I started to collaborate with the research laboratory in Evolutionary Psychology at Oakland University, Michigan, coordinated by Prof. Todd. K. Shackelford.
2021: I founded the Association of Personality and Evolutionary Psychology.
2022: I founded Evolutionary-consulting, a consulting agency in the field of human capital
2022: I founded HelloMe, a psychology services hub
2023: I founded the Laboratory of Personality and Evolutionary Psychology, University of Bucharest
2023: I published the first book chapter about the mating strategies of dark personalities in the Oxford of Human Mating, edited by D.M. Buss.
2023: I sustained the Habilitation thesis entitled Individual differences in personality. Predictors of adaptive and maladaptive behavior, which offers the possibility to be an advisor for doctoral students. “
Check my professional profiles at
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Vlad-Burtaverde
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=sJo62fUAAAAJ&hl=en
https://loop.frontiersin.org/people/1026658/overview
https://loop.frontiersin.org/people/1026658/network
https://www.iea.nl/about/org/people/dr-vlad-burtaverde
https://twitter.com/vladjuve?lang=en
https://www.tiktok.com/@dr.vlad.burtaverde
https://www.facebook.com/psihologvladburtaverde/
https://www.linkedin.com/in/vlad-burtaverde-35119351/
https://cipp.ug.edu.pl/Author-Vlad-Burtaverde/168949
https://www.psih.uaic.ro/a/_fis/sc_doc/_cv_refer/cv_burtaverde_v.pdf
What is the theory behind the worksheet?
This exercise relies on the core beliefs approach proposed by James & Barton (2004), which assumes that behavior is influenced by implicit negative schemas about ourselves.
How will this worksheet help
This worksheet will help you identify the most important cravings of yours and how to develop behaviors that help you manage them.
How to use the worksheet
The exercise Responding to Triggers is used to bring awareness to the cravings, urges, thoughts and feelings that arise when faced with the desired food item while also making a distinction between problem-solving in the external world versus the futility of the control agenda with internal experiences.
This exercise is used in groups. Make sure to provide each group member with paper and pens so they can record their thoughts, feelings, and cravings during the activity.
First, bring the desired food and put it into a bowl. Now go around the room with the desired food and let each group member see and smell it. Ask group members what thoughts, feelings and cravings they experience with the food item in front of them and tell them to note them down on paper. Ask them to share some examples and as they do so, label the examples as thoughts, emotions, or cravings so the clients can understand the distinctions between them.
Then use the following script to explore different ways of relating to cravings, ultimately using the metaphor of wave to help participants consider the possibility of just experiencing cravings as they rise and fall without acting on them:
Triggers and cravings worksheet (pdf)
- One way to avoid external triggers is to
- literally throw them away. (Throw the ice cream into a trash can.) Where’s the ice cream now? It’s no longer in front of you; it’s melting with a bunch of trash. We’ve effectively gotten rid of the trigger.
- What about the thoughts, feelings, and cravings? Can you just throw them away? Have you tried to do this in the past? (Solicit examples, with the goal being to get participants in contact with a control agenda— with trying to change or control their feelings or make them go away.) And in your outside life, what have you tried for dealing with these thoughts and feelings? What do you feel like you should do or should be able to do with them? How have you tried to deal with them when they show up? (Elicit a discussion of the limitations of control when applied to internal experiences.) What if it were the case that we can’t simply throw these experiences away when we don’t want them? Could we try something different with these internal experiences?
- Now I’d like you to try something else. Take a moment to get present with any urges you may have when looking at that carton of ice cream or any other food you typically crave. Imagine picking it up, putting it in your mouth, and beginning to eat it. Try to taste the food as it enters your body.
- Notice what thoughts are going through your mind and the emotions and physical sensations that arise, and breathe. What physical sensations are you experiencing in your body? If you feel overwhelmed by urges and sensations, you can always go back to just observing your breath. Remember that you’re making a choice not to act on any cravings to eat that arise right now. Just stay with them and observe what’s happening in your body and mind.
- As you get in touch with any cravings you have, see if you can drop any struggle you’re having with those cravings and just let them be. Imagine that you can expand around your cravings and make room for them inside you without having to do anything about them. Now imagine that your urge to eat is an ocean wave and that you’re a surfer, riding that wave of craving with your breath, using your breath as your surfboard. Your job is to ride the wave of the desire to eat from the beginning and as it grows, staying with it through the peak of its intensity, keeping your balance while the wave of desire rises until it naturally subsides. You’re riding this wave of desire and staying on top of it rather than being wiped out by it.
- Notice the craving with curiosity. When have you really just sat with a craving and looked at it, as opposed to reacting to it? Where do you feel it in your body? With your mind’s eye, see if you can simply touch the areas of your body where you feel the craving and trace them in your body.
- Continue imagining the presence of your desired food. Now notice how you can simply stay present with this craving instead of immediately reacting to it. Notice the thoughts that pass through your mind and the sensations you’re experiencing in your body. Be present with the craving. Try to make room for the craving without giving into it and having to act on it.
You can download this worksheet here.
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References
1.-
James, I. A., & Barton, S. (2004). Changing core beliefs with the continuum technique. Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapy, 32(4), 431-442.
