Zettle's Relational Frame Theory

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ACT is philosophically rooted in functional contextualism and theoretically rooted in relational frame theory (Zettle, 2007). Functional contextualism sees no thought, feeling or event as inherently problematic or dysfunctional but rather, sees these within specific contexts. Harris and Hayes (2009) describes that thoughts, feelings and memories function in harmful and distorting ways, but if given an acceptance and deffusion driven context they may have a different influence. Though still negative, these events no longer prevent the individual from a valued life. Similarly, relational frame theory (RFT) is an empirically based theory of the human language and cognition, which provides the basis for the ACT therapeutic approaches. Extending behavioural principles, RFT considers thinking as a form of learned behaviour (Webster, 2011). Summarized, RFT suggests that through relational framing we first develop relations between …show more content…

Words then have the power to bring a range of negative psychological and even physiological effects. To avoid this distress we try to employ behaviours that give us short-term relief- this is known as experiential avoidance. Experiential avoidance involves trying to avoid suppress or escape, from unwanted “private events” including thoughts, memories and feelings (Flaxman et al., 2011). However, many experientially avoidant behaviours usually consist of the initial distress and may increase this distress in frequency or intensity blocking people from living and enjoying a meaningful life. Therefore disentangling people from their minds, is one of the main aims of ACT, it is achieved by helping the mind look at the present and distinguish when to engage in problem solving and when not to (Hayes et al.,

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