ABSTRACT
Acceptance & Commitment Therapy places significant emphasis on experiential learning because doing so is consistent with the principles of functional contextualism and Relational Frame Theory (RFT). Clients have lots of rules already in place before they ever consult with a professional. One might argue that it is the plethora of rules and their rigid adherence to them that brings them to the point of needing to seek help in the first place. Whilst Benjamin Franklin knew nothing of RFT, he clearly knew that involving someone in experiential forms of learning promoted better adaptation to the context, and fostered attention to direct experience rather than reliance on verbally constructed rules. Since rule-following can markedly reduce context sensitivity, instead of telling clients what to do, practitioners are more helpful when they model, initiate, and reinforce the noticing and describing of direct experience.
