Why can a single word, thought, or memory trigger intense emotional or physical distress, even when no direct threat is present?

This episode breaks down core principles from Relational Frame Theory (RFT) and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) into accessible, everyday language to explain how human language shapes psychological suffering.

Today the focus is on the Transformation of Stimulus Function.

Rather than treating painful thoughts as fixed facts, learn how clinicians leverage the power of metaphor to alter our relationship with distress, quiet rigid thought loops, and create room for meaningful action.

Key Highlights & Topics Covered

• How Language Shapes Suffering: Learn why human beings experience emotional distress purely through symbolic language, words, and mental associations—and why fighting or suppressing these thoughts often makes them stronger.
• Demystifying "Transformation of Stimulus Function": We simplify this foundational behavioral concept for, explaining how the psychological impact or meaning of a stimulus (a thought, memory, or physical feeling) can shift when placed in a new context.
• Shifting Rigid Self-Narratives: Discover how automatic self-labels like "I am broken" lock us into emotional suffering through cognitive fusion, and how shifting to an observing perspective (self-as-context) restores choice and flexibility.
• Metaphors in Clinical Practice: See how counselors use vivid relational metaphors—such as carrying a heavy backpack, navigating Chinese handcuffs, or observing passengers on a bus—to transform heavy emotional burdens into manageable, workable experiences




PLEASE NOTE: This episode is AI generated and reviewed by the team before its release.

In this episode of Deeply Functional: In Conversation, Todd Schmenk is joined by Siri Ming, Julia Fiebig, and Evelyn Gould to explore the thinking behind Frame by Frame, their approach to helping clinicians understand what is happening functionally in the therapy room.

The conversation begins with a familiar problem: ACT is often taught and practiced as a curriculum, protocol, or collection of exercises. The group considers what changes when clinicians move beyond choosing techniques and begin attending more carefully to behavior, context, learning history, and the function of what is unfolding from moment to moment.

Together, they discuss how Relational Frame Theory and functional analysis can inform clinical decisions without pulling therapists away from the human interaction in front of them. They explore the value of “zooming in” on the immediate exchange while also “zooming out” to consider developmental, relational, group, and systemic influences on behavior.

The discussion also examines psychological flexibility across different stages of life, the development of selfing through language, and the therapist’s own participation in the clinical process.

Throughout the episode, Frame by Frame offers a way of slowing the work down enough to see more clearly, conceptualize more coherently, and respond with greater flexibility.

This conversation will be especially useful for clinicians, supervisors, and trainers interested in moving beyond procedural ACT toward a more contextual, behaviorally grounded, and responsive approach to clinical practice.

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What are we really reaching for when we criticize, withdraw, demand reassurance, or shut down with out partners?

In this episode of Deeply Functional, Todd Schmenk talks with Lou Lasprugato about yearnings: the deep, recurring experiences people seek within their closest relationships.

Together, they explore how yearnings differ from needs and values, why they make us vulnerable, and how they can become hidden beneath difficult patterns of interaction.

Todd and Lou also examine how a functional assessment can help therapists look beyond the couple’s observable behavior and identify what each person is trying to move toward.

When criticism is understood as a longing for connection, or withdrawal as protection from rejection, new possibilities begin to emerge.

This conversation offers therapists a practical and compassionate way to understand conflict by asking a deeper question: What is each person yearning to experience, and what happens when that yearning feels threatened?

Lou Lasprugato Psychotherapy & Training PLLCCA and VA licensed MFTPeer-Reviewed ACT TrainerACBS FellowPast ACBS Training Committee Chair

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We all carry stories about who we are: I’m anxious. I’m broken. I’m the responsible one. I’m someone who always fails. These stories can help organize our experience, but they can also become prisons when we begin treating them as fixed truths rather than ways of making sense of ourselves.

In this installment of Deeply Functional, we explore the conceptualized self through the lenses of functional contextualism and Relational Frame Theory. We look at how identity stories are built, how they shape behavior, and how clinicians can help clients loosen their grip without arguing with the story or replacing it with a more positive one.

The goal is not to discover the client’s “true” identity, but to create enough flexibility for them to act beyond the limits of who they have learned to believe they are.

In this FLEX LAB conversation, we work through a clinical vignette to examine what the clinician did, why those choices made sense, and how a functional understanding of the case shaped what happened next.

Rather than searching for the “right” ACT intervention, the discussion focuses on tracking function, noticing opportunities for movement, and responding flexibly to what is happening in the room.

The conversation also builds on questions and ideas raised in the online FLEX LAB community at RIACT.org, bringing several clinician perspectives into the discussion.

Together, we explore how case conceptualization becomes a practical, collaborative process—one that helps us think more clearly while remaining responsive to the person in front of us.

Find out more to join us monthly here - FLEXLAB Online

What changes when ACT stops being something a clinician does and begins shaping how they understand therapy?

In this episode of Deeply Functional: In Conversation, Todd Schmenk sits down with Peter Binnings, LICSW, to reflect on their shared journey from discovering ACT to developing a deeper, more functionally grounded way of practicing it. Together, they revisit what initially attracted them to ACT, what they misunderstood along the way, and when the model began to feel like more than a collection of interventions.

You’ll explore:

• What first draws many clinicians toward ACT
• Common misunderstandings during the early stages of learning
• How Functional Contextualism changes the way clinicians understand therapy
• What remains meaningful after years of practicing ACT
• Why becoming an ACT clinician requires continued curiosity and growth

Clinician takeaway: Developing fluency in ACT is not simply a matter of learning more techniques. It involves learning to see behavior differently, question your assumptions, and allow your clinical practice to keep evolving.

Learn more about Peter here: https://journal.riact.org/author/peter/

For further learning, resources, training, and connection, visit riact.org.

Hey All, pulling this format back into the rotation. The Quick Blip is one topic delivered in less than 2 minutes. No fuss no muss and these will often be addressing common questions fielded in my work in consultation, supervision and teaching.

The Hexagon in Reverse — Part 3 of 7

What happens when efforts to protect ourselves from discomfort begin organizing more and more of our lives?

This episode explores experiential avoidance as an inflexibility process within ACT. Todd examines avoidance not as weakness, resistance, or pathology, but as an understandable attempt to gain safety and relief. Difficulties develop when thoughts, memories, emotions, and physical sensations acquire threatening functions, leading behavior to become increasingly organized around controlling, escaping, or preventing internal experience.

You’ll explore:

• How avoidance can provide immediate relief while gradually narrowing behavior
• How emotional withdrawal, intellectual explanation, constant activity, topic changes, and postponement can function as avoidance
• Why the form of a behavior matters less than what it accomplishes in context
• How acceptance and willingness help clients remain in contact with experience while moving toward what matters
• Why acceptance involves making room for experience rather than approving of it, enjoying it, or giving up

Clinician takeaway:

You will learn to look beneath the visible form of avoidance and identify the protective function it serves. Rather than forcing exposure or persuading clients to feel differently, the clinician helps them build the capacity to remain in contact with difficult experience while choosing meaningful action.

The central question shifts from “How do we make this feeling stop?” toward “Can this person carry this experience and still participate in the life they want to build?”

For further learning, articles, training, and connection with the contextual behavioral community, visit https://riact.org.

Read more about inflexibility reads here

When does holding space support meaningful change, and when might it unintentionally help a client remain stuck?

This episode offers an AI generated conversation created through NotebookLM and based entirely on Todd Schmenk’s article, “Beyond Holding Space: Helping Clients Get Unstuck.” Todd reviewed the conversation for accuracy and consistency with Functional Contextualism and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy.

The episode examines a central clinical tension: therapeutic presence and validation are essential, yet they may become unhelpful when they function primarily to support avoidance or maintain patterns that are no longer workable. The alternative is not greater confrontation or less compassion. It is compassionate disruption, where warmth and understanding are paired with enough direction to create psychological movement.

You’ll explore:

• Functional listening, which looks beyond what a client is saying to examine what their behavior is doing in the moment
• Strategic validation, which honors the client’s history and experience without reinforcing continued stagnation
• Structured direction, which uses values and workability to give the session a meaningful trajectory
• Productive discomfort, which recognizes that movement may require both the client and clinician to remain present with uncertainty and unease
• How clinicians can balance compassion, presence, and active engagement without becoming overly directive

Clinician takeaway:

You will learn to distinguish between holding space that expands flexibility and holding space that may inadvertently reinforce avoidance. The goal is not to abandon validation, rush the client, or force change. It is to listen functionally, validate strategically, and introduce enough direction and productive discomfort to help the client move toward a fuller and more workable life.

This recording is part of an experiment using AI to make longer clinical articles more accessible through conversation. I would genuinely like to hear whether you find this format useful.

Read the original article: Beyond Holding Space: Helping Clients Get Unstuck

For further learning, articles, training, and connection with the contextual behavioral community, visit https://riact.org.

The Hexagon in Reverse — Part 2 of 7

What happens when a thought stops functioning as one possible description of experience and begins operating as reality itself?

This episode opens the first inflexibility process in the ACT model: cognitive fusion. Todd explores how language can organize attention, emotion, and action so completely that behavior narrows around what the mind is saying. Fusion often offers the nervous system a sense of certainty, prediction, or protection. The difficulty emerges when verbal rules begin overriding direct experience, present context, and other available choices.

You’ll explore:

• How thoughts acquire the functions of the events they describe
• Why fusion can feel protective, compelling, and difficult to question
• What rigid rules, absolute language, repetitive reasoning, and identity statements can reveal in session
• How shifting from “this is true” to “this is a thought I am having” can create greater flexibility

Clinician takeaway:

You will learn to recognize when language is dominating behavior and use a simple defusion move to create space between the client and the thought. The goal is not to challenge, correct, or eliminate the thought. It is to change the client’s relationship with it so that context, experience, and chosen direction can influence what happens next.

For further learning, articles, training, and connection with the contextual behavioral community, visit https://riact.org.