FUNCTIONAL
ANALYTIC
PSYCHOTHERAPY
(FAP)
As Functional Analytic Psychotherapy requires therapists to be
vulnerable with clients, and to be emotionally close and to
express genuine emotions with care, it seemed interesting to me.
Creating Intense and Curative Therapeutic Relationships is central in
FAP and FAP believes that loneliness and poor social connections can
be countered by promoting Awareness, Courage and Love in
clients – in and out therapy sessions.
I was also curios to know how it was possible to develop a new
therapy which includes emotional curative aspects while having
roots in Behaviourism at the same time.
FAP has a Concise Conceptual
Framework Rooted in Contextual
Behavioural Theory
Functional analytic psychotherapy (FAP)
was introduced to te world by
Kohlenberg and his wife,Tsai,
As behavioural scientist practitioners,
they worked with clients who
demonstrated profound changes far
exceeding the specific stated goals of
therapy, through a highly emotional
therapeutic process.
Current forms of FAP are
incorporating a model of social , that
emphasizes three inter-related
behavioral processes labelled
awareness, courage (related often
to vulnerable self-expression) and
love (related to loving
responsiveness to one’s self and
others).
CORE
CONCEPTS
OF FAP
Viewing Clients
In Context
Natural
Reinforcement
Generalization
Functional
Analysis
Clinically
Relevant
Behavior (CRB)
VIEWING
CLIENTS IN
CONTEXT
The contextual framework
facilitates a compassionate view
of a client’s daily life problems
and actions.
This stance creates
space for acceptance
and the emergence of
more adaptive
behaviour.
These behaviours are
seen as the natural
result of one’s history
and were once adaptive
and necessary but are
no longer working.
Natural reinforcement is authentically
responding to client problems and
improvements in session in order to
strengthen adaptive behaviour.
NATURAL
REINFORCEMENT
Responding to adaptive interpersonal
behaviours as they occur in session
rather than commenting on client
reports of what they did in between
sessions.
GENERALIZATION
• Generalization is when a client learns a more skilful behaviour and is
then able to successfully implement this behaviour in other areas
• For example, if the same behaviour is evoked in both therapy and the
client's daily life environments (e.g., hostility, not following through,
avoidance of emotion), then they are functionally similar.
FUNCTIONAL ANALYSIS
“what is a
behavior’s
function?” or
“what makes a
client persist in
engaging in a
particular
behavior?”
Understanding the function
of a behaviour (e.g.,
drinking when with friends
to relieve social anxiety),
rather than just its form
(e.g., drinking 5 drinks per
night), leads to different
and more individualized
therapeutic interventions
CLINICALLY RELEVANT BEHAVIOUR (CRB)
The client’s daily life
problems that show
up in session are
referred to as CRB1s,
In session
improvements are
termed CRB2s.
CRB1s are expected
to decrease as
CRB2s are more
frequently naturally
reinforced by the
therapist.
RULES
Rule 1. Watch for CRBs
(be aware)
Rule 2. Evoke CRBs
(be courageous and emotionally present in the
relationship)
Rule 3. Naturally reinforce CRBs
(be therapeutically loving)
Rule 4. Notice your impact
(be interpersonally aware)
Rule 5. Provide functional interpretations of
behavior and implement generalization strategies
(interpret and generalize)
The rules can be translated into a model
of therapist Awareness, Courage and
Love (ACL) which then promote ACL in
clients,
So they can create and maintain close
relationships and live meaningful lives.
FAP is effective Across different Settings and
Populations such as;
– As Couple Therapy
– with Sexual Minorities
– Transcultural implications
– with Adolescents
– with Persons with Serious Mental Illness
– with People Convicted of Sexual Offenses
– for Interpersonal Process Groups
Limitations of FAP
As ACL involves in-depth training in which clinicians are
required to develop self-knowledge and the ability to take
strategic risks and be vulnerable with clients, and the ability
to be emotionally close and to express genuine emotions
with care –
this might become a challenge when handling demanding
clients.
It also puts the therapist in a vulnerable state which can
cause ethical dilemmas.
Although the therapy is effective and has
evidence based research findings, the
therapy hasn’t reached it’s potential
popularity due to lack of training and
exposure as yet.
My Suggestions would be;
1. FAP can be exposed to the wider community MARKET FAP!
2. Make resources available (and for Free)
3. Suggestion for the class, - GET MY ASSIGNMENT and
LEARN
The Practice of
Functional Analytic
Psychotherapy
Written by Mavis Tsai, Robert J.
Kohlenberg, Jonathan W. Kanter,
Barbara Kohlenberg, William C.
Follette, Glenn M. Callaghan.
Published in 2008.
Functional
Analytic
Psychotherapy
Made Simple
Written by Gareth Holman
PhD, Jonathan Kanter
PhD, Mavis Tsai PhD,
Robert Kohlenberg PhD,
Steven C. Hayes.
Published in 2017.
Following video is about The FAP workshop in Montreal May 21st-22d
2015
Find other related books;
https://functionalanalyticpsychotherapy.com/books-on-fap/
For more resourece;
Website; https://functionalanalyticpsychotherapy.com/
THANK YOU