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ViewAttendees 4

Individual Oral Paper

Treatment - Mindfulness & Acceptance

Methods, Moderators, and Innovations to Improve Clinical Engagement and Outcomes

7 - (IOP 39) Tracing Pathways to Well-being Through the Mindfulness and ACT Literatures: The Unified Flexibility & Mindfulness (UFM) Model as a Transdiagnostic & Transtherapeutic Framework of Paths to Healing

Saturday, November 22, 2025
4:30 PM - 4:45 PM CST
Location: Imperial 11, Level 4
Keywords: ACT (Acceptance & Commitment Therapy), Mindfulness, Change Process / Mechanisms
Recommended Readings: Rogge, R. D., & Daks, J. S. (2020). Embracing the intricacies of the path toward mindfulness: Broadening our Conceptualization of the Process of Cultivating Mindfulness in Day-to-Day Life by Developing the Unified Flexibility and Mindfulness Model. Mindfulness, 12, 701-721.,   Rogge, R. D., Lin, Y. Y., Swanson, D. P., Amaro, A. (2024). Tracing the Path toward Mindfulness back to its Origins: Linking Tenets of Buddhism to Mindfulness within the Buddhism-Informed Unified Flexibility and Mindfulness (BI-UFM) Model. Mindfulness, 15(4), 775-794.,   Macri, J. A, & Rogge, R. D. (2024). Examining Domains of Psychological Flexibility and Inflexibility as Treatment Mechanisms in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy: A Comprehensive Systematic and Meta-Analytic Review. Clinical Psychology Review. 102432.,   ,  

Background: Over 50 years of research on cognitive behavioral interventions has robustly demonstrated their efficacy and effectiveness at treating a wide range of mental health disorders. However, far less is known about the transtherapeutic and transdiagnostic processes that might characterize the healing process within therapy. This talk presents the Unified Flexibility & Mindfulness (UFM) model, a conceptual framework that incorporates forms of mindfulness, psychological flexibility/inflexibility, self-compassion, and emotion regulation as key processes associated with the process of healing in therapy. Drawing from the mindfulness, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, and emotion regulation literatures, the UFM serves as a conceptual bridge linking the 20+ processes identified within those fields into a broader step-wise process of change.

STUDY1: EFA, CFA, and IRT analyses in a sample of 2742 online respondents (68% female, 81% white, M = 42yo) expanded the MPFI to create the 70-item UFM scale. SEM path analyses supported the UFM model, organizing the 14 distinct flexibility processes into a series of broader stages: mindful lenses (describing, observing, & attentive awareness of difficult experiences) were proximally linked to greater decentering of difficult experiences (acceptance, maintaining a broader perspective, & gently experiencing), which was proximally linked to greater value-driven behavior even in the face of difficult experiences and setbacks (contact with values & committed action), which was proximally linked to wellbeing. In contrast, an inattentive and distracted lens was proximally linked to defensively reacting to difficult experiences (experientially avoiding, fusing, & shaming oneself for them), which was proximally linked to aimless/haphazard behavior (loss of contact with values, getting stuck in inaction), which was proximally linked to lower wellbeing and greater distress.

STUDY2: SEM and network analyses in 2091 cross-cultural online respondents (668 white Americans, 319 Asian Americans, 332 Chinese, 400 Japanese, and 362 Taiwanese) offered cross-cultural support for the UFM, linking it to tenets of Buddhism.

STUDY3: Network analyses on 1-month change scores from 1242 online respondents (72% female, 84% white, 70% heterosexual, M = 51yo) continued to support the UFM model in 2-wave longitudinal data.

STUDY4: Network analyses in 1911 online respondents (76% female, 84% white, 70% heterosexual, M = 51yo) expanded the UFM to include self-compassion and difficulties with emotion regulation. Those analyses revealed that SCS self-compassion processes demonstrated strong proximal links almost exclusively to decentering (acceptance, self-as-context, & defusion), suggesting that it might primarily serve to facilitate that portion of the UFM. In contrast, DERS difficulties with emotion regulation processes demonstrated strong proximal links to defensively reacting (experiential avoidance, self-as-content, fusion) and aimless/haphazard behavior (loss of contact with values & inaction), potentially facilitating those less adaptive processes.

Conclusions: The UFM model offers a new conceptual framework for modeling the process of healing and growth.

Learning Objectives:

At the end of this session, the learner will be able to:
  1. Describe the process elements and structure of the UFM model and will be able to use the UFM scale to track treatment progress.