Annual Review from the Lab!
What we have been talking about:
This past year, we launched an ongoing series of conceptual and theoretical discussions of articles examining the behavioral underpinnings of ACT, including conceptualizations of fusion/defusion from an RFT perspective, broad multi-disciplinary views of acceptance, and ongoing consideration of defining psychological flexibility/inflexibility. (We’ve listed these below for anyone interested.*)
Our RFT and Psychological Flexibility meetings continue to provide a space to refine our case conceptualization process and tools through ongoing case discussions.
What we have been working on:
Our main joint lab project continues to be writing a paper based on our 2024 LaMiss presentation on the importance of cooperative contexts for change in our practice. We have also started to blog about psychological flexibility, ACT, RFT, and behavior analytic practice and revamped the psychflexandrft.com website to be the public-facing home for our lab.
Ways we continue to support each other:
Throughout the year, our weekly lab meetings have provided a space for grappling with issues in the field as well as issues in our own practices. It’s been reassuring to see that we all experience similar tensions in our practices, despite geographical differences, and share similar values as to how we can move forward.
We’ve been able to practice presentations and get feedback, support, and new ideas. We’ve been able to work through the anxieties or uncertainties that we are experiencing, and the lab has been a safe space that has the context to feel better supported.
We’ve brainstormed resources, vented our frustrations, and generally enjoyed the bright spot in our Mondays of connecting with one another.
Something we’ve learned/ Things we are learning:
As the lab has grown and evolved over this past year, a few common themes have emerged. We are all committed to this process as a collaborative one, that respects our individual as well as collective capacities. We are all continually learning how better to integrate and take care of what is usually labeled as “personal life” alongside our lives as professionals—we are whole people, and we bring our whole selves to this work.
We’ve had to figure out what a lab “is” when it is a lab of practitioners rather than researchers and students housed in an academic institution. In the course of this figuring out of things, we’ve been learning from and with one another how to function as a cooperative community of practice, including things like figuring out how to run meetings as a space for everyone to contribute and take responsibility.
In collaborating on our cooperation paper (so meta!) as well as in collaborating on lab meetings and other projects, we’ve been learning how to create structure while remaining flexible—creating a container for support in ways that respect what each of us as individuals might need.
A few lab member highlights from 2025:
Barb: As someone who was initially trained in the Experimental Analysis of Behavior (EAB), a highlight of my year was developing and teaching the EAB course for a university program. EAB is absolutely foundational to deeply understanding behavior, not just ABA strategies; not to mention that it was contextual before contextual was cool (seriously, it continually refines the contexts under which certain principles and data are obtained!). I spent much of the year supporting the clinical and professional growth of emerging professionals, which fits closely with my values around mentoring. I served as project chair for six master's students, three of my supervisees completed their experience hours and became eligible for the BCBA exam (with two already passing), and I added three additional supervisees to my supervision program. I was also excited to step into the role of conference committee co-chair for my state behavior analysis association, helping shape both the conference content and overall experience. I was thrilled to continue devoting time and professional energy to the future of our science!
Christelle: 2025 has been a year of consolidation and intentional growth. It marked the beginning of the writing phase of my PhD on language development in autistic children, alongside the completion of the key authorization steps required to move the research forward. Working within my research laboratory has been central to this process. Through ongoing exchanges grounded in shared knowledge and collective reflection, these collaborations have offered new perspectives on my work and supported a deeper, more nuanced understanding of my research questions. This year also strengthened my commitment to integrating ACT principles into team management, with the aim of supporting psychological flexibility, improving quality of work life, and helping others find greater clarity and serenity in what they do—values that guide both my professional practice and research. Beyond academia, engaging in long-term personal projects such as the collective renovation of a sailboat has reflected my dedication to lifelong learning, collaboration, and skill development, reinforcing the importance of balance, presence, and shared engagement across contexts.
Evie: My biggest highlight was welcoming Bea Arthur, our little one-eyed rescue cat, into our family after the LA fires. His arrival brought unexpected healing after a very difficult end to 2024. I don’t have space to name all the moments of personal joy and connection with chosen family this year, but there were many. My dad also turned 80 and I got to be together with all of my brothers in Belfast to celebrate. Professionally, a major highlight was joining the IOCDF DEI Action Council and having my disability and accessibility task force proposal selected as a priority focus for the next two years. I also joined the Community Advisory Board for a WITH Foundation–funded project led by the AJ Drexel Autism Institute, focused on developing neuro-affirming and culturally responsive training for mental health practitioners. Across both roles, the most meaningful aspect has been collaborating in spaces that genuinely centre lived experience, disability justice, and shared leadership. Other highlights included: presenting at the ACBS ROI/UK conference on belonging and gender diversity with my Irish and Brazilian colleagues, making progress on some on-demand courses with Siri—including finally launching our intro to ACT course, and rediscovering the joy of exercising the intellectually curious part of myself during lab theoretical/conceptual discussions.
Jessica: In 2025, I lived at the intersection of motherhood, practice, scholarship, community building, and contemplative inquiry. Professionally, I worked as a behavior analyst alongside autistic individuals and their families while advancing my doctoral research on language, collaboration, and psychological flexibility, including the continued development of the Collaborative Action and Reflection Toolkit (CART), grounded in contextual behavioral science and ethical, values-guided practice. I contributed to the RFT SIG with ACBS by hosting the monthly Dissemination and Implementation of RFT in Behavior Analysis webinar series and co-founded the ACT/RFT in ABA SIG as a space for shared learning and community building. I also founded Mettle: A Zine of Thinking, Living, and Doing Data to hold creative, ethical inquiry, amplify voice, and cultivate connection. Personally, motherhood is where what I am learning is continually practiced, with my children as my teachers. Deepening my meditation practice supported growing awareness, loosening old rules and conditioning, and responding in ways grounded in care and nonharming, shaping 2025 as a year of integration, connection, and waking up.
Laurel: 2025 was a particularly challenging year for me. Throughout the year, I had several experiences where my professional abilities were being questioned, even though it was untrue, it was very disheartening. I am grateful for my ACT knowledge and my deep connection to my values both of which help me act with grace and self-compassion through these particularly challenging times. While this was going on, I joined Constellations practitioner lab. Never have I felt so supported and encouraged. With the tensions that exist in our field, the injustices that can occur, I was feeling lost, and this group has reminded me that I belong!
With the support of the lab, my friends, and family, I returned to private practice and opened Concentric Assessment & Consultation. In addition to this, I passed year 1 of my post-graduate degree in Education & Social Justice. Yay! Another exciting highlight was that my daughter started kindergarten and it has been incredible to see all the growth and development that has happened for her over the last few months. These are the moments I will cherish from 2025. These are reminders of just how resilient we humans are.
Natasha: 2025 highlights for me include trying to get back into the groove of normal life after having defended my dissertation in late 2024. This included getting back into health and fitness with training and teaching capoeira, weight training, and healthy vegan cooking. These are the types of things that make me feel alive; they are so therapeutic, calming, and grounding for me. Besides that, I finally began reading recreationally (though most of my books are still heavily theory and practice related). Another highlight was carving out a lot more time to connect with friends and family, which was virtually non-existent when I was in school and the sole breadwinner for my little family. While it’s super uncomfortable for me, I made it a point to be more vocally active in lab and within the community broadly. 2025 also included increased activism (for obvious reasons, that I don’t think I need to spell out here). The most important thing that I did at the end of 2025 was resign from a majority of my work contracts to make more space to do values-aligned work in 2026. It’s scary and filled with a lot of uncertainty…and also exciting.
Siri: My highlights from 2025 reflect my commitment to viewing “professional/paid-work” and “personal/not-work” as part of life as a whole. On the professional side, I’ve been shifting my RFT courses into an on-demand format that includes asynchronous support, in an ongoing effort to make that work more widely accessible. I’ve also been chipping away at a new book that updates and expands my previous handbooks on using RFT to promote generative language; my 2026 commitment is to finish this! But the anchor and highlight of 2026 for me was taking most of the fall off of professional work, to hike the Camino de Santiago (Portuguese coastal route) and the Kumano Kodo in Japan. I’m now working on integrating this personal work into practices to carry out in 2026 to support my creative work and writing, as well as my support of others in both my personal and professional spaces.
Sylvie: In 2025, I had an exceptionally productive year focused on advancing ACT in culturally responsive family and caregiver support. I co-presented at the Pan-African Congress on Autism in Kenya, the DMV ABBA conference, the Rotary Club Advocacy Inclusive Education Global Summit, and the Histamine & Moi Congress—where I delivered my first ACT presentation in French—and concluded the year with an ACT presentation in Edea, Cameroon. Across these presentations, I explored parents and educators well-being, psychological flexibility, stigma reduction, and culturally responsive care for families of neurodivergent children. I also successfully completed and defended my dissertation on the effects of Acceptance and Commitment Training on value-directed behavior among immigrant parents raising children with autism. In my professional role, I trained staff from my department on using ACT to enhance service delivery, drawing on skills and tools gained through ongoing learning opportunities, including the Finding Your Why & Finding Your Way book club.
*Theoretical and conceptual papers we’ve been discussing:
Defusion/fusion:
Assaz, D. A., Tyndall, I., Oshiro, C. K. B., & Roche, B. (2022). A Process-Based Analysis of Cognitive Defusion in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. Behavior Therapy. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.beth.2022.06.003
Blackledge, J. T. (2007). Disrupting verbal processes: Cognitive defusion in acceptance and commitment therapy and other mindfulness-based psychotherapies. Psychological Record, 57(4), 555.
Harte, C., Barnes-Holmes, D., de Rose, J. C., Perez, W. F., & de Almeida, J. H. (2023). Grappling with the Complexity of Behavioral Processes in Human Psychological Suffering: Some Potential Insights from Relational Frame Theory. Perspect Behav Sci, 46(1), 237–259. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40614-022-00363-w
Acceptance:
Cordova, J. V. (2001). Acceptance in behavior therapy: Understanding the process of change. The Behavior Analyst, 24(2), 213–226. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF03392032
Mrazek, M. D., Dow, B. R., Richelle, J., Pasch, A. M., Godderis, N., Pamensky, T. A., Rutila, B. A., & Mrazek, A. J. (2024). Aspects of acceptance: building a shared conceptual understanding. Front Psychol, 15, 1423976. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1423976
Williams, J. C., & Lynn, S. J. (2010). Acceptance: An Historical and Conceptual Review. Imagination, Cognition and Personality, 30(1), 5–56. https://doi.org/10.2190/ic.30.1.c
