A multiple case study of the personal values of counselor trainees from a psychological flexibility perspective: a sample from Turkey Yasin Aydın 1 & Merve Usta 2 Accepted: 3 December 2020 # The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC part of Springer Nature 2021 Abstract Many different approaches have been used in psychology to determine values and investigate valuing behavior. However, understanding the individual significance of the values is crucial to predict the actions that produce them. A significant number of studies exist in counseling education that focuses on the diverse issues of counselor trainees. These include, but are not limited to, self-efficacy levels, emotional awareness, attachment styles, and supervision experiences in counseling education. During the literature review conducted for this study, it was discovered that there was no investigation of counselor trainees’ values from an Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) perspective. Using ACT as the overarching framework, the current qualitative study aimed to examine counselor trainees’ values from a psychological flexibility perspective. During the data collection process, all counselor trainees (N = 62) were initially asked to fill both an Acceptance and Action Questionnaire (AAQ-II) that measured their psychological flexibility level and a Valuing Questionnaire (VQ) that measured their valuing levels. Participants were then split into two groups, based on their AAQ and VQ scores regarding either high or low psychological flexibility or values awareness. As a result of the analysis, 18 (15 female, three male) senior counseling students took part in the study, with the data being collected via focus groups and individual interviews. As a result of the study, four main themes were identified following detailed content analysis: (1) perception of values, (2) committed action vs. experiential avoidance moves, (3) present movement awareness and perspective skills, and (4) cognitive defusion and fusion experience. Implications were discussed in light of the relevant literature. Keywords Psychological flexibility . Personal values . Counselor trainees . Case study Introduction Human behavior is shaped by purpose and personal values, and those values are unique to each human being (Dahl et al., 2009). Personal values can also be considered one of the most powerful motivators in life. Individuals are likely to experi- ence many difficulties when their life does not have meaning or purpose (Garfield, 1992). The phenomenon of personal values has been studied via various approaches, ranging from humanistic psychology to a self-actualization process (Rogers, 1964), positive psychology (Sheldon et al., 2002), and the behavioral approaches of Skinner (1971), which are defined in terms of contingencies and reinforcements. Personal values have also been described extensively by Schwarts (2005), with a focus on the social psychology perspective, and by Rokeach (1973) with an emphasis on instrumental and terminal values definitions. It is clear from the above that personal values have been conceptualized from different perspectives. Nevertheless, there is a theoretically derived behavioral approach, named Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) (Hayes et al., 1999). There is promising empirical support that this modern approach accu- rately describes values or valuing behavior. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), which is considered one of the third wave cognitive-behavioral ap- proaches, explain human behavior from a consideration of acceptance and mindfulness perspectives within the core con- cept of psychological flexibility (Hayes et al., 1999). * Yasin Aydın yasnaydin@gmail.com Merve Usta merve.usta@outlook.com.tr 1 Department of Educational Sciences, Counseling and Guidance Department, Faculty of Education, Bolu Abant İzzet Baysal University, Golkoy Campus, Bolu, Turkey 2 Department of Educational Sciences, Counseling and Guidance Department, Faculty of Education, Hasan Kalyoncu University, Gaziantep, Turkey Current Psychology https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-020-01264-4