Functional Analytic Psychotherapy (FAP)

High quality relationships are essential to psychological health and well-being, and relational intimacy is a core feature of these relationships. Decades of research in relationship science have converged on a central model of intimacy wherein individuals develop close, trusting relationships with one another. Functional Analytic Psychotherapy (FAP) is a contextual behavioral intervention approach that is well-equipped to target interpersonal processes through the provision of in-session, therapist mediated reinforcement of skillful intimate relating. Single-subject level analyses of FAP's efficacy and mechanism of action are supportive; however, there is a need for group-level research to evaluate its efficacy and generalizability.

Research has demonstrated a connection between microaggressions and decreased mental health across racial and ethnic groups. Microaggressions on college campuses can have a negative impact on students of color, which has led to a push for more microaggression-focused diversity trainings on college campuses. However, no training thus far has demonstrated efficacy in reducing participants’ propensity to commit microaggressions. We reported an intervention, the Racial Harmony Workshop (RHW), to reduce racial biases and microaggressions and promote interracial connection among college students.

Functional Analytic Psychotherapy (FAP) is a contextual behavioral therapy that utilizes behaviorism within the therapeutic relationship to implement in-session changes with the idea that these changes will generalize outside of session. The therapist focuses on reinforcing adaptive behavior and decreasing problematic behavior. Although FAP has existed as a therapy for nearly three decades, there is a limited amount of research examining its efficacy, and the majority of FAP efficacy studies use single-subject data. The current study aims to synthesize data from 20 FAP single-subject design research studies in order to provide a quantitative estimate of its efficacy.

The use of idiographically defined target behaviors in Functional Analytic Psychotherapy (FAP) has limited participation in a reticulated model of treatment development. One way to address this limitation is to offer a standardized set of clinical targets for FAP. The current study details a method of identifying standardized treatment targets in FAP using the Awareness, Courage, and Love (ACL) model. The applicability of the model was assessed by evaluating the degree to which previously identified clinical targets in FAP research correspond with the proposed specific categories of the ACL model. There is an 83.67% fit between past idiographic targets and current standardized targets.

Global Mental Health (GMH) initiatives aim to address inequities in mental health care across the world. Particular emphasis is placed on building mental health service capacity in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) where over 80% of the global population live. Consistent with this approach, concerted efforts are being made to globally disseminate psychological interventions. These initiatives must negotiate tensions that exist between making interventions sufficiently scalable, whilst retaining aspects of the psychotherapy process that maximize both the acceptability and efficacy of psychological interventions. This paper reflects on the important contribution that Contextual Behavioral Science (CBS) can make to GMH.

A therapeutic model of social connection derived from Functional Analytic Psychotherapy (FAP) that applies to both the client’s outside-of-therapy relationships and the psychotherapeutic relationship is explored in two studies. The model integrates established behavioral principles with existing research on the reciprocal process of self-disclosure and responsiveness that occurs during development of intimate relationships to highlight a promising therapeutic process. In this process, self-disclosure (“courage” in FAP’s model) is evoked by the therapist and then reinforced with therapeutic responsiveness (“love” in the FAP model) resulting in improved self-disclosure and more connectedness in the therapy and other relationships.

A brief, group mindfulness intervention targeting both state mindfulness and social connectedness was developed based on Functional Analytic Psychotherapy׳s model of awareness, courage, and love.

This article explores some tensions between contextual behavioral science (CBS) and radical behaviorism or behavior analysis (BA), particularly with respect to the study of emotion. We contrast Darrow and Follette's (2014) discussion of alexithymia from a radical behavioral perspective, which we view as representing a traditional behavior analytic approach, with a CBS approach, as we understand it. As a convenient anchor for our discussion, we discuss how CBS and BA might view the term "love." We present suggestions for how "love" may be used as a middle-level term in a CBS approach, and why usage of such middle-level terms is important to the mission of CBS to create a science more adequate to the challenges of the human condition.

The evidence based assessment (EBA) movement stresses the importance of psychological measures with strong psychometric properties and clinical utility. The Functional Idiographic Assessment Template system (FIAT; Callaghan, 2006) is a functional analytic behavioral approach to the assessment of interpersonal functioning for use with therapies like Functional Analytic Psychotherapy (FAP; Kohlenberg & Tsai, 1991). While research has begun to demonstrate the clinical utility of the FIAT, its psychometric properties have not been explored. The present study examines the Functional Idiographic Assessment Template - Questionnaire (FIAT-Q), a self-report measure contained in the FIAT.

Basic behavioral principles (e.g., reinforcement) are compelling candidates for research isolating and evaluating psychotherapy mechanisms of change in contextual behavioral science. Functional Analytic Psychotherapy (FAP) is a contextual behavioral treatment approach that teaches therapists to employ behavioral principles, including the evocation of and contingent responding with reinforcement to client behavior live in session, as its hypothesized mechanism of change. FAP also facilitates generalization of in-session improvements to out-of-session contexts.