Relational frame theory 20 years on: The Odysseus voyage and beyond
RFT has grown up on paper; your next job is to test it at the table with clients.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Barnes-Holmes et al. (2022) wrote a story-style review. They looked back at 20 years of Relational Frame Theory work.
The paper gathers early lab studies and new Odysseus-program projects. It does not add fresh data.
What they found
The field has grown fast. Core ideas like mutual entailment and transformation of function are now better tested.
Clinical uses are still young. Most work is still done with college students, not clients.
How this fits with other research
Wallace et al. (2010) counted RFT papers up to 2008. They saw mostly sameness-frame work with adults. The new review shows the same trend is still strong.
Chastain et al. (2025) and Gilsenan et al. (2022) push the theory into autism practice. Their single-case studies prove kids can learn deictic frames and join ACT sessions. These papers extend the review’s call for more clinical tests.
Together the picture is clear: basic RFT is rich, but real-world trials are just starting.
Why it matters
You now have a map. Use it to pick solid RFT procedures when you design language or perspective-taking goals. Push for small pilots with your own clients. Track data and add to the thin clinical pile.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
The seminal text on relational frame theory (RFT) was published 20 years ago and purported to offer a single overarching behavior-analytic account of human language and cognition. In the years thereafter, an increasing number of empirical and conceptual articles, book chapters in edited volumes, and whole volumes devoted to the account emerged. In recent years, RFT has experienced a period of intense empirical and conceptual development, facilitated in part by a research grant awarded by the Flanders Science Foundation, under its Odysseus program. This research program aimed to advance and extend the RFT account beyond the rendition presented in the seminal Hayes et al. (2001) volume. The current article aims to provide an overview of this research program, the empirical work and concepts it gave rise to, and their implications for an RFT account of human symbolic language and cognition. Overall, therefore, the article provides an account of relatively recent developments in RFT that extend beyond the 2001 volume and thus will, we hope, inform future research and critiques of the theory going forward.
Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 2022 · doi:10.1002/jeab.733