Cognitive Fusion in the Inflexahex Model: Learning to Defuse
MidAmerican Psychological Institute
Pickslyde Consulting
Key Points
- When a behavior is inflexible and influenced more by verbalization and language rather than by one’s own experiential consequences, we can say that the person is engaging in cognitive fusion.
- We use the Inflexahex worksheet to record what content is the client fused to and then use that data for a solid case conceptualization.
Materials Downloads
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Transcript
In this training for Acceptance and Commitment Therapy case conceptualization, we’ll look at the converse relationship between defusion and cognitive fusion.
When behavior is inflexible and influenced more by language and verbalizations rather than by experienced environmental consequences, we can say that the person is engaging in cognitive fusion.
The ACT 1999 book, the classic text uses an interesting turn of phrase when discussing cognitive fusion. It says that verbal symbols and environmental events are poured together as if two separate things, words and direct experiences become one compound. They become fused together. Think about two different things being fused together like when soldering or welding metals together. When a welder takes I-beams that are two disconnected items and welds them together, they become one solid rigid entity. No one would talk about them as if they were two things welded together. They might actually call it something else like that is a ceiling buttress. They are fused together and now it is one thing.