ACT: The soul of behavior analysis.

People often ask me how I ended up in the world of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA). Given my more intuitive, counseling-oriented nature, it’s a fair question; colleagues always saw me as much more likely to sit on a therapy rug than to sit with a data-tracking clipboard. In the end, I did both.

The turning point that actually inclined me to complete my BACB coursework certificate was discovering that Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is actually a direct product of ABA. It stems from Relational Frame Theory (RFT), which is essentially the advanced ABA science of how human beings learn language and cognition.

In a nutshell, ABA teaches us the mechanics of classical and operant conditioning. When that science is advanced, it helps us understand how our brains extrapolate massive webs of meaning and complex visuals from a single, simple stimulus. Inversely, it also explains why we develop such rigid, sticky attachments to our thoughts. Once we have conditioned a specific pathways of meaning, it is incredibly difficult to simply "un-condition" ourselves.

What a diagnostic manual might call a "faulty mind" or a disorder is, through an ABA lens, often just the logical product of environmental conditioning. Our minds naturally get attached to things, and understanding the science of how we get stuck makes it infinitely easier to learn how to let go.

Many moons ago, while reading through various therapeutic disciplines, the work of ACT founder Steven Hayes clicked profoundly with my brain. Traditionally, the clinical focus had been dominated by standard Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), which pushes patients to actively dispute, challenge, and change their negative thoughts. But that approach never quite worked for me. I continuously found myself resisting it, and to this day, I firmly believe that the aggressive thought-challenging of traditional CBT can actually make symptoms worse for certain individuals.

The common pitfall of CBT, and the reason it meets so much internal resistance, is that it essentially asks you to stop thinking what you are already thinking. It’s the classic "don't think about a pink elephant" paradox—the second you try to suppress it, the elephant grows larger.

ACT handles the pink elephant entirely differently. It doesn't ask you to fight it, ignore it, or force it out of the room. It simply says, "Let's put a pin on the pink elephant." We aren’t pretending it isn't there, but we also aren't fueling it with too much eye contact or attention.

       [ Committed Action ]         [ Values ]
               \                       /
   [ Self-as-Context ] ── ACT HEXAFLEX ── [ Cognitive Defusion ]
               /                       \
       [ Acceptance ]               [ Present Moment ]

What has fascinated me most within this framework is the Hexaflex (the core model of ACT made up of six interrelated principles: Acceptance, Defusion, Present Moment, Self-as-Context, Values, and Committed Action. ) It serves as a visual map to see exactly where our thoughts and feelings are getting caught up.

Over the last ten or so years, I have maintained a personal practice (Well, I’ve tried! Admittedly, there are seasons where I forget, but it is the exact tool I always come back to whenever I feel my own anxiety or stress levels rising. ) I sit down with a blank piece of paper, draw the six categories of the Hexaflex, and fill them in based on where I am at that exact moment.

Some days my pen starts in the Present Moment section, anchoring my current physical sensations. Other days, I might start with Values to remind myself of who I want to be, or I might notice that my cognitive distortions and self-judgment are loud, choosing to start with Defusion to separate myself from those heavy thoughts.

The brilliant thing about the Hexaflex is that by ‘dropping anchor’ in the Present Moment, it introduces a somatic, approach to what could otherwise be a purely cerebral exercise. Coming back to the physical body while simultaneously balancing the other cognitive categories is deeply integrating. To this day, I have never had a personal session where I filled out that six-sided map and didn't feel a tangible sense of integration, alignment, and emotional release afterward.