Regret is a potential part of any decision---either anticipating regret or reflecting on past choices. Regret often contributes to procrastination, avoidance, and worry as well as rumination, self-criticism, and dissatisfaction. In this presentation we will review how specific assumptions that underlie decision making make us more vulnerable to regret. This includes existential and emotional perfectionism, maximization strategies, depressive decision styles, and emotion forecasting. We will review specific interventions to reverse regret drawing on techniques from cognitive therapy, emotional schema therapy, metacognitive therapy, ACT, and other approaches.

Learning Objectives:

1. Identify the role of maximization and depressive styles in regret
2. Describe how regret impacts procrastination, risk aversion, indecision, rumination, and self-criticism
3. Explain how to assist clients in accepting uncertainty and risk in order to make more pragmatic and effective decisions
4. Describe how to assist clients in reducing post-decision regret, self-criticism and rumination and accept trade-offs in making decisions while enhancing satisfaction with imperfect outcomes.