In this episode of Deeply Functional, Todd Schmenk kicks off a new mini-series on process-based work with specific populations by taking a functional, ACT-informed look at anxiety.

Rather than treating anxiety as a symptom to eliminate, this episode reframes anxiety as a natural human response and focuses on how people behave in its presence. You’ll hear why symptom management often backfires, how avoidance quietly shrinks a person’s life, and what it means to expand behavior even while fear is still onboard.

Todd outlines three core functional targets for anxiety work—fusion with threat-based language, experiential avoidance, and loss of values direction—and offers a clear clinical illustration showing how these processes show up in real sessions and how to intervene at the process level.

🎧 Episode Extras
This episode is accompanied by a written article and supplemental materials that expand on the functional framework, clinical targets, and in-session moves discussed here.

👉 Access the full article and extras

If you’re ready to stop managing anxiety and start helping clients live more fully with it, this episode sets the foundation.

In this brief update, Todd shares a small shift in where the RIACT Quick Blips will live going forward and why.

The short, practical ACT-in-Context episodes will now be available exclusively on RIACT.org, helping support the time, care, and sustainability needed to keep producing them.

The longer Deeply Functional episodes will continue right here every other week, just as before. No changes there.

This episode isn’t about restriction, it’s an open invitation to a space built specifically for clinicians who want grounded, functional, process-based tools they can use right away.

In this episode of Deeply Functional, Todd Schmenk explores a common fear among clinicians encountering Process-Based Therapy, ACT, or Relational Frame Theory:
the belief that shifting approaches means abandoning everything they’ve learned.

Todd offers a reassuring — and liberating — reminder:
you don’t need to start over. You just need to see differently.

Through practical examples and clear process-based thinking, Todd breaks down:

• Why existing clinical skills don’t become obsolete — they become organized and sharpened.

• How shifting the question from “What’s wrong?” to “What purpose does this serve?” simplifies therapy.

• Why symptoms are signals, not problems to eliminate.

• How RFT helps us respond to thoughts contextually rather than trying to correct or argue with them.

• The power of tracking function over technique — and why no single therapy model holds the monopoly on effectiveness.

This episode is an invitation to lighten the load of clinical work, move beyond model loyalty, and begin noticing the processes that truly matter in the room.

If you're a clinician feeling overwhelmed by new models or frameworks, this is your reminder:
You already have the skills. Now it’s about seeing with new eyes.

Want to learn more about this project?

Click here to find out more

You’re not your thoughts or feelings—you’re the space that holds them, and that shift changes everything.

In this episode, Todd Schmenk explores how to use metaphors as more than teaching tools. Functional, evocative metaphors can shift context, disrupt unhelpful patterns, and open clients to new ways of relating to their experience.

Todd breaks down common missteps, shares a checklist for building metaphors that actually land, and highlights classics like Ball in the Pool, Passengers on the Bus, and The Chessboard.

Learn how to craft and deliver metaphors that move behavior, evoke emotion, and create real psychological flexibility.

A three-step compass to keep sessions process-focused—evoke the process, model it, and reinforce flexibility in the moment.

In this wrap-up episode, Todd Schmenk brings together the six ACT core processes into a practical, flexible framework:

The Deeply Functional Map. Instead of checklists and protocols, the map helps clinicians track real-time shifts in fusion, avoidance, and self-identity that shape client behavior.

Todd shows how to use the map in session, in case notes, and as a guide for spotting and reinforcing psychological flexibility.

A hands-on episode for therapists who want to move beyond protocols and see the function of behavior in context.

A quick look with Todd at why it’s not pain itself that keeps clients stuck, but the struggle against it—and how openness creates freedom.