ABSTRACT
Acceptance & Commitment Therapy is a contextual intervention, and cognitive fusion is only targeted where it is unhelpful to the client, in the sense of it interfering with the pursuit of meaningful values or goals. One of the unhelpful ways in which fusion manifests is when behaviour appears to be inflexible, governed by thoughts, rules, and reasons, rather than being directed by environmental feedback or by what works. Many of the rules that we learn to follow are based on relations that are internally or socially constructed and they can bear little relation to direct environmental contingencies. Many rules can develop for good reason, although it is important to keep checking whether changes in the context over time mean that the function of following them has also changed.
