My Quest for Smooth ACT Matrix Sorting

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Since the earliest days of learning about the ACT Matrix I’ve been striving to lead clients through that really smooth, elegant, sorting into the matrix. The kind of sorting that Kevin Polk often talks about in his trainings; when a client expresses something saying “Ah yes, and where would you put that on the matrix?”

The fact is that I’ve always had a hard time using the matrix in that way. It’s very easy for me to use as a conceptual tool, and to help clients brainstorm alternate actions they might engage in, but very hard for me to keep pointing back at the diagram rather than responding to the content of the client’s response.

So over the years I’ve experimented with using the matrix in the Polkian way, mostly by crafting easy-to-sort-into matrices that the client can hold onto which I then direct them to look at from time to time throughout the session.

Often when I do this, I abandon it about 5 minutes after starting, and the session looks more like what you can see in my ACT Matrix Course.

But what I have noticed is that by using the matrix so often in my personal life that when I refer to the matrix internally (in my head), I am doing something very similar to simply sorting out my experience into the quadrants and vertical line. So I do think that this method has value and can be used to great affect. It’s just a matter of how to do it and still feel genuine.

Over the weekend I’ve been working on another of what I call a “tracking matrix”, a version that is designed to help people sort their experience (track) more easily. I’ve just put the finishing touches on it (for now).

I think it works fairly well, and keeps with the foundation of the horizontal line that I use (Survival-Vital), and the rationale for it.

Here’s a PDF of this diagram if you’d like to print it out yourself: Google Drive Link

The way you might use this is by slowing down the client and asking them to sort out what they’re noticing into one of the quadrants and then using that as a springboard for conversation.

For example I might have a thought running through my head about what the next six months are going to look like. And if I step back and observe which quadrant this thought might fit into, I could put it into the lower right hand quadrant “Important to me”, because there is so much embedded into the thought that matters to me, like people, places, and things.

Or I might notice that my mind is ruminating over this thought and sort the experience of ruminating itself into the top left quadrant, because the ability to think over future scenarios evolved for survival.

I’d like to practice this way of using the matrix a little bit more, so I’m planning more frequent zoom meetings where we can get together and discuss, practice, & learn.

Stay tuned for dates and times.

Respectfully Submitted,

Jacob Martinez // Through The ACT Matrix