This workshop introduces Functional Analytic Psychotherapy (FAP), a third-wave therapeutic approach that brings functional analysis into the therapeutic relationship. Level 1 is a personally transformative experience, with experiential learning to enhance your power of reinforcement in session.
FAP’s proposed mechanism of action is using genuine therapist responses to contingently respond to problematic client behavior as it occurs in session. Training in FAP helps clinicians identify functional classes of behaviors as treatment targets, maximize the benefits of the therapeutic alliance, and use their own reactions to client behaviors to build a powerful connection with their clients (Kohlenberg & Tsai, 1991). While FAP is an effective therapeutic modality on its own, practitioners can also integrate its lessons into other modalities. Over the course of this workshop, we will work with participants to assess psychological problems using the FAP model. Participants will learn how to identify clinically relevant behaviors, enhance rapport through a process of reciprocal exchanges of vulnerability and responsiveness, and evoke and reinforce more adaptive behaviors in session. We will use experiential exercises, small group work, and dyad work to encourage participants to practice and enhance new skills.
Audience:
This workshop is intended for mental health professionals (psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, etc.) at all levels of expertise and working with any population in any treatment setting, particularly practitioners interested in in-session functional analysis and full-hearted interpersonal approaches to psychotherapy.
Instructional Level: Introductory to IntermediateLearning Objectives: ● Describe the theoretical basis for Functional Analytic Psychotherapy ● Describe and practice functional assessment ● Define and explain clinically relevant behavior (CRB) ● Explain the five rules of FAP which guide therapist interventions ● Immersive exercises that are transformative for the participant.
Tien Kuei is the Trustee and CEO of Power to Live, a mental health charity dedicated to making behavioral treatments and training accessible and affordable. Tien received her Functional Analytic Psychotherapy (FAP) training under the guidance of Mavis Tsai and Bob Kohlenberg, with extensive supervision from Mavis over the years. She is a certified FAP trainer by the University of Washington and serves on the FAP SIG Ethics Board. Tien has trained multiple cohorts of therapists to deliver FAP integrated with Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). She has also designed and delivered workshops on therapeutic interactions at ACBS conferences and is the organiser of the Annual European FAP Intensive Workshops.