Levin, M. E., Smith, B., & Smith, G. (2019). The Potential Benefits of Flexibility for Dissemination and Implementation: Acceptance and Commitment Therapy as an Example. Perspectives on Behavior Science, 42, 223-232. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40614-019-00196-0
Our commentary on the article by Fixsen and Blase (2018) highlights some of the converging and diverging strategies between the Teaching-Family Model (TFM) and the dissemination and implementation of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT). We focus primarily on the potential benefits of flexibility in areas including theory, methodology, and intervention protocols. Examples include the use of middle level terms, randomized controlled trial methods, protocols focused more on function than specific topography, and an open, collaborative approach to dissemination. We also note how this broader set of strategies can be made coherent and progressive through a careful connection back to contextual behavioral science as an underlying scientific strategy and its associated philosophy of science. We hope this approach contributes to an ongoing conversation on potentially useful strategies for dissemination and implementation.