Experiential Learning and Why Information Alone Does Not Stick

Mike opens with Fordyce's line that, for behavioral change, information alone is like throwing spaghetti at a brick. Patients may seem to understand at the end of a session and yet a week later nothing has changed. Learning comes from experience, which is why pain can be taught through other senses such as taste and hearing. For a frustrated patient seeing several practitioners at once, the didactic option is to tell them to stop trying so hard, which is information-based and can feel judgmental. The experiential option is a Chinese finger trap: the harder the patient pulls, the tighter it gets, and they discover for themselves that flexibility gets them out. This plants a seed rather than telling someone to be more psychologically flexible. Kolb's 1984 cycle has four stages: concrete experience, reflective observation, abstract conceptualization and active experimentation. Having an experience does not guarantee learning, since patients can get blocked at any stage.