Trucks Stuck in the Mud, 2 Approaches to Getting Unstuck (Truck Night in America)

Over the pandemic, the surprise family-favorite show in our household was Truck Night in America. Our 8 year old son led this interest, but soon all of us were hooked, including our teenage daughter. Several non-professional drivers bring their trucks, which I’ve learned are called Rigs, and they compete in a fantastical off-road course. Muddy slopes, big jumps, truck tug-of-war, uphill climbs through waterfalls and rocks. They compete for the two spots of racing in the final trial, the Green Hell. The next to last of the obstacles in the Green Hell is The Swamp. A long stretch of saturated mud, deep enough to engulf the hood of the truck. Almost every car gets stuck here. If it doesn’t, it’s usually due to a combination of custom modifications for exactly these low-traction, high level water conditions plus the skill and training of the driver. Impressive trucks with loud engines, high ground clearance and confident drivers get hopelessly stuck in the mud. More power to the engine just causes tires to spin ferociously, flinging mud. Engines cut out from the heat of the effort.

I’ve started talking to clients about cognitive behavioral therapy in terms of off road trucks stuck in the mud. There is no shortage of effort, no lack of will or power. Clients with impressive achievements, valuable skills, and plenty of confidence get stuck in the swamp. It’s just a situation where doing more thinking and trying harder just keeps the driver flinging mud and sinking deeper. The skills of therapy are like engaging the specific techniques that finally allow you to translate all that effort into forward movement and into getting unstuck.

So there are two ways to get a truck unstuck from the mud

1 - You can find a way to get traction within the mud so that your own efforts are able to move you forward again.

2- You can hook yourself to something outside of the mud and use it to pull yourself out.

In terms of therapy, these are like using strategic cognitive skills (getting traction in the mud of your mind) and committing to taking action based on your guiding values (attaching the wench to something you care about in life- a goal or the values that define who you want to be in life- and move slowly in that direction). These are the skills I teach my clients, and they are the skills I use myself.

1- Get Traction

I see the more cognitive methods like learning to get traction. You could lay down two wooden boards, wedged just in front of each front tire. Or, sometimes it’s enough to sweep the tires left and right, to move slowly, shift gears, and that’s enough to finally get traction. It requires slowing down, precision, and finesse.

In therapy, we learn to slow down our thinking, use our thinking more precisely, and with more nuance. The Two Boards approach is much like CBT’s thinking and reflecting skills. For this, I find TEAM-CBT to be incredibly valuable and my go-to with clients and with myself.

2- Hook to Something Outside of the Mud

The other way to get out of the swamp, and the way most drivers in Truck Night in America escape the mud, is by method 2 - using the wench. A wench is a fancy motorized rope on the front of the car. Usually you hook it to a tree or something, but there are ones designed to hook yourself to any stable ground beyond the mud too.

The Wench approach is more refined within Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT, which is said like the word “act” rather than A - C - T). In ACT, we identify what matters most to us and hook ourselves firmly to it. It’s about who you want to be in life and where you want to invest your energy and attention. You identify your deepest values, clearly plan actions related to your values or goals, and set specific goals, all which allow you to focus on something meaningful outside of the stuckness.