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RFT for Clinical Practice: Three Core Strategies in Understanding and Treating Human Suffering

APA Citation

Törneke, N., Luciano, C., Barnes‐Holmes, Y., & Bond, F. W. (2016). RFT for Clinical Practice. The Wiley handbook of contextual behavioral science, 254-272.

Publication Topic
ACT: Conceptual
RFT: Conceptual
Publication Type
Book
Language
English
Keyword(s)
human suffering, psychological therapy, RFT, relational framing, verbal behavior
Abstract

This chapter presents the strategies that are based on relational frame theory (RFT) and relates specifically to the complex human abilities of, following instructions or rules, and interacting with our own behavior. According to RFT, these two core areas suggest potentially useful perspectives on how one might do effective therapy and they also provide an understanding of what, to some extent, brings individuals into psychological therapy in the first place. As repertoires of relational framing emerge and flourish, one formulates all kinds of stories in relation to the external and social world and these are controlled by contextual cues provided by that world. The chapter discusses the view that deficits in the relational repertoires correspond to psychological rigidity and form a central process of psychological suffering in general and of clinical problems in particular, and that training these very repertoires is a key task in psychological treatment.