Reimagining Mental Health
A Functional Future Rooted in Process and Purpose
Adapted from a four-hour talk by Steven C. Hayes | Edited by Todd Schmenk, LMHC
Hey All - recently took the time to listen to, work through and takes some notes on a presentation from Steven Hayes. I have attached some of the main aspects of this lecture for your review.
It is a long presentation, but if what you see here peaks your interest, here is a link to the video so you can follow up and listen directly to him talk on this subject:
Steven C. Hayes' workshop
"The Future of Mental Health."
“No one is an error term.”
This one phrase captures the heartbeat of the evolving field of mental and behavioral health. In this landmark session, Dr. Steven Hayes challenges clinicians, researchers, and systems to rethink their work—not just in terms of what techniques they use, but in how deeply they listen, measure, and personalize their care.
Here is a distilled guide to the key ideas, drawn from his four-hour presentation and reshaped into a working roadmap for our field’s future.
1. 🌍 From Tradition to Transformation
“The goal isn’t to abandon your tradition—it’s to stop using it as a fence.”
Rather than defend legacy models, Hayes encourages us to ask:
Are we functionally helping people flourish?
If not, the model must evolve. Whether you’re steeped in ACT, DBT, CBT, IFS, or EMDR, the real allegiance is to function, not form. Traditions can be valuable—but only if they empower conversations and connection, not division.
Takeaway: Integrate, don’t isolate. Hold yourself accountable to outcomes, not names.
2. 🧬 The Extended Evolutionary Meta-Model (EEMM)
Hayes situates Process-Based Therapy (PBT) within the EEMM framework—offering a roadmap that organizes psychological processes across dimensions (cognitive, affective, motivational) and levels (individual, biological, sociocultural).
Using variation–selection–retention as a lens, we can better understand change over time in real contexts.
Takeaway: Let processes—not protocols—drive your interventions.
3. 🧪 A Shift to Idiographic, High-Density Assessment
Traditional RCTs often flatten the nuance of client experience. Hayes promotes the use of high-density longitudinal data and idiographic assessment—focusing on the individual as the unit of analysis rather than averaging across groups.
“Every single psychological flexibility process is sometimes unhelpful depending on the context.”
This isn’t theoretical—his team has found:
Variables that have no group effect but strong individual effects
Clusters of people (e.g., “stoics”) who persist in values-driven behavior without emotional uplift
Takeaway: Individualize your data, your models, and your compassion.
4. 💡 Functional Integration, Not “Chicken Gumbo”
“If you're adding techniques from other models, ask what process they move.”
Rather than haphazardly combining approaches, Hayes advises that we think functionally:
What processes are at stake?
What techniques move those processes?
Is this coherent with my therapeutic stance?
This allows for integration with existential therapy, mindfulness, DBT, and more—without turning the work into eclectic soup.
Takeaway: Your model should evolve, but remain coherent and process-based.
5. 📱 Leveraging Technology with Purpose: The PsychFlex App
Hayes outlines how the PsychFlex app supports this shift:
Clinicians can build and share exercises, forms, onboarding tools
Clients can self-track processes like defusion, values, or committed action
Organizations can create shared libraries of what's working—and avoid burnout by reducing redundancy
“Training changes understanding. But behavior change? That’s where tech can help.”
Takeaway: Use technology to extend the heart, not just automate the hands.
6. 🧭 The “90-Day Challenge”
Hayes opens with a simple but profound invitation:
“Give it 90 days. Try a process-based approach. See what happens.”
This challenge is meant for systems, clinicians, and clients alike. Test the model, measure outcomes, adapt based on feedback. It’s a scientific, compassionate stance.
Takeaway: The best evidence often starts with personal experience. Lead with heart, follow with head and hands.
7. 🧠 Research Without the Ivory Tower
“We’re the Linux, not the Microsoft. We're the give-it-away people.”
Hayes emphasizes the importance of open science. His team is releasing open-source R code, omic-based statistical models, and toolkits for ecological assessment to help researchers everywhere examine individual change patterns at scale.
Takeaway: Democratize data. Invite others into the scientific process.
8. 👂The Who’s on Whoville Effect
A vivid metaphor closes the loop:
In the story Horton Hears a Who, the creatures shout, “We are here!” But no one believes them—until Horton hears.
Likewise, many clients—especially those in minority or marginalized groups—have been dismissed by systems that “can’t hear” them statistically. But with process-based, idiographic tools, we can amplify their voice.
Takeaway: Every person matters. If your method can’t detect them, change your method.
🚀 A Functional Future
This session wasn’t just theory. It was a call to action:
Center your work in process, not protocol
Measure what matters to the individual
Use data to listen, not dismiss
Share your tools. Build together.
If you’ve ever felt constrained by diagnosis codes, by fidelity checklists, by forced protocols—this talk gives you permission to do better. To be deeply functional.
As Hayes closed:
“This is not pie in the sky. This can happen. We can do this. But I need your help. Every voice matters. No one is an error term.”
🔄 Ready to Try?
Commit to one process-based shift over the next 90 days:
Integrate an idiographic measure
Use a flexible app-based intervention
Redesign your intake to reflect processes over pathology
Start a clinician peer group using these principles
For those of you who often attend the process groups or one of my trainings and presentations, I think you will note some of the topics here.
Many of these components are infused into the work that we are all trying to do and I love some of the new ideas that he is putting forth here. I hope you all find some value in this.
Todd