2025 Grant Recipients:
Gladis-Lee Pereira, Ph.D., Associate Professor at Universidad Europea de Madrid and her co-investigators; Tien Kuei (Power to Live Foundation) and Natalia Andrés-López (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid) are proud to be the recipients of the 2025 ACBS Robert J. Kohlenberg Research Grant to complete a research project: Mapping In-Session Change in Functional Analytic Psychotherapy from An Idiographic Molar Approach.
Functional Analytic Psychotherapy (FAP) is a therapeutic approach that emphasizes in-session interactions as the key factor driving meaningful change in clients' lives. It is a type of therapy that focuses on explaining why people change rather than merely analyzing if they change. In this sense, research that connects specific in-session interactions with clinical improvement, while preserving the unique role of each therapeutic dyad, is one of FAP’s most important tasks and, perhaps, one of its greatest methodological challenges.
Therefore, this study aims to expand our understanding of the specific behaviors exhibited by psychotherapists that are associated with clinical change, seeking to use a methodology that better fits the nature of psychotherapy. We believe that by focusing on the therapeutic interaction during clinical sessions, while capturing the uniqueness of each case, this project will contribute to improving therapeutic effectiveness and refining training methodologies for clinicians practicing FAP. This, in turn, has the potential to inform future research and applications within Contextual Behavioral Science and ultimately alleviate human suffering.
Rabbi Aaron D. Cherniak (Hebrew University of Jerusalem) and his co-investigator; Dr. Max Wolff (Central Institute of Mental Health, Mannheim) are proud to be the recipients of the 2025 ACBS Robert J. Kohlenberg Research Grant to complete a research project: Psychedelic Psychotherapy Through a Functional Analytic Lens: Relationship as a Meta-Mechanism of Change.
Psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy has shown potential to treat depression, trauma, and other mental health difficulties. Yet, we still know relatively little about how these therapies work. Recent research has identified several general mechanisms of psychedelic-related change that may drive improvement in psychotherapy broadly. However, these processes may depend on relational factors and how individuals navigate psychedelics’ effects.
Functional Analytic Psychotherapy (FAP) emphasizes the therapeutic relationship as the most powerful engine of change. FAP views the therapeutic bond not only as a source of support, but also as the context in which new patterns of relating can be learned and reinforced. This project applies a FAP-informed lens to psychedelic psychotherapy by exploring whether relational processes can organize and amplify other change processes identified by decades of integrative psychotherapy theory and research support, and in this context, more adaptive modes of experiencing psychedelics’ effects (acceptance-related vs. avoidance-related strategies).
To answer this, we will analyze data from a large international study that validated a novel measure of Grawe’s transtheoretical therapeutic change mechanisms, the first to assess clinically relevant relational behaviors and experiences during dosing sessions. We will explore mechanisms of therapeutic change at play in psychedelic experiences and their associations with a range of psychological flexibility, quality of therapeutic relationship, of individuals’ test whether the relationship mediates or moderates the link between life circumstances, change mechanisms, and a range of outcomes, such as aspects of mental health and well-being. This will clarify whether the therapeutic relationship functions as a superordinate factor that facilitates other mechanisms.
By illuminating how relational processes shape therapeutic effects, the project can help refine psychedelic therapy training, improve therapist guidance, and contribute to advancing knowledge in FAP. Ultimately, the findings may support the development of more effective and relationally attuned psychedelic therapies, reducing suffering and enhancing well-being across diverse populations.