The Practice of Functional Analytic Psychotherapy

Since the earliest years of its development, Functional Analytic Psychotherapy (FAP) has been hailed for its clinical innovation and transformative power with clients across the range of disorders. Building on the foundations of their earlier volumes about this versatile therapy, the editors of The Practice of Functional Analytic Psychotherapy bring together noted clinicians and researchers to explain in depth how FAP can be used in conjunction with a broad spectrum of therapeutic approaches, and with diverse client populations. The hallmarks of the method, including therapist sensitivity and responding to client behavior in the moment, courage, mindfulness, acceptance, and egalitarianism, inform a wide array of interventions and strategies, among them:

• Integrating FAP with other treatments, including cognitive behavioral therapy, acceptance and commitment therapy, dialectical behavior therapy, behavioral activation, psychodynamic therapies, and feminist therapies.
• Applying FAP across cultures, nationalities, and ethnicities.
• Employing FAP with couples.
• Increasing sensitivity to and effectiveness with sexual minority clients.
• Modifying FAP for developmentally appropriate use with adolescents.
• Enhancing a team approach with severely mentally ill patients in institutional settings.
• Strengthening the power of interpersonal process groups.

As a new tool or an enhancement to current practice, these applications of FAP will give therapists an empowering complement to their work. The Practice of Functional Analytic Psychotherapy points to compelling directions in personal growth and change—on both sides of the therapeutic bond.

"Functional Analytic Psychotherapy is a clinically sophisticated approach that uses an in-session focus to assess and modify clients’ interpersonal problems as they manifest themselves in the therapy interaction. It is a powerful intervention that is not psychodynamic, experiential, cognitive-behavioral, or cognitive, but rather a clinical guideline for how to conduct good therapy. This volume demonstrates how the intervention can be used with different clinical populations, theoretical orientations, and modalities of treatment. Indeed, it is a transtheoretical approach that can be readily integrated into all approaches to treatment."

- Marvin R. Goldfried, Distinguished Professor of Psychology, Stony Brook University

"Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy seem to have taken, 100 years after Medicine, the road of scientific explanations and treatments. Kohlenberg and Tsai since early 90s have been providing scientific analyses of clinical issues -such as emotion and memory, consciousness and the self, that were not commonly accepted issues by behavior community. The Practice of FAP shows how scientific precision and humanistic scope and depth can go together to enhance effective therapeutic change. This impressive book will improve indispensable for the FAP community that is rapidly growing worldwide and for all researchers and clinicians who are interested in the third wave CBT."

- Paolo Moderato, Ph.D. Professor of Psychology, IULM University (Milan, Italy) EABCT Past President, Founder and President of IESCUM, European Institute for the Study of Human Behavior

"Functional Analytic Psychotherapy (FAP) adapts radical behavioral principles to dealing with interpersonal problems in therapy in a humane and sensitive fashion. This lively compilation describes the way that FAP can be integrated into a variety of different treatments and applied to a variety of patient populations. The authors are to be congratulated for the breadth and power of their contribution. The basic principles they describe should improve anyone's practice."

- Steve Hollon, Ph.D. Vanderbilt University

"Psychotherapy integration has been the brass ring for which mental health researchers and theorists have striven but rarely reach with frequent reliance on“common factors” as the final explanation of how various treatment approaches are similar. Remarkably, Kanter, Tsai, and Kohlenberg have offered an actual method of integration with Functional Analytic Psychotherapy (FAP). They have brought together a stunningly impressive group of authors to illustrate how the five principles of FAP can enhance a number of empirically based treatments by attending to the “here and now” in-session behaviors of clients. This book goes beyond speculation and presents a theoretically sound, clinically practical, and compelling approach to techniques that are based in behaviorism yet developed to enhance treatment regardless of theoretical orientation. This book should be on the shelf of every practicing clinician, as well as on the must read lists for students and psychotherapy researchers."

- Christopher R. Martell, Ph.D., ABPP. Clinical Associate Professor, University of Washington. Co-Author of “Depression in Context: Strategies for Guided Action” and “Behavioral Activation for Depression: A Clinician’s Guide”.

"This book will be incredibly informative and thought provoking for all clinicians who recognize the value of working in the "here-and-now" therapeutic relationship. Kanter, Kohlenberg and Tsai provide a broad range of chapters that seek to both integrate FAP in relation to other treatment approaches as well as provide additional information on specific populations and settings in a practical, clinically relevant manner."

-Mark J. Hilsenroth, Ph.D.; Editor, Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, Practice, Training

Jonathan W. Kanter, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor of Psychology and Coordinator of the Psychology Clinic at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM). He directs the Depression Treatment Specialty Clinic which is collaboration between UWM and the Medical College of Wisconsin. His research focuses on behavioral and behavior analytic approaches to understanding and treating depression, with particular emphases on Functional Analytic Psychotherapy (FAP) and Behavioral Activation (BA), and an additional research interest in stigma related to depression. His research goal is to increase access to quality services for ethnic minorities and the underserved. He has written or co-edited five books on these topics, published over 50 articles and chapters, and currently is Principal Investigator and Co-Investigator on two National Institute of Health grants to study Behavioral Activation. He has presented numerous workshops on FAP and provides clinical supervision in both FAP and BA. e-mail: jkanter@uwm.edu

Mavis Tsai, Ph.D., co-originator of FAP, is a clinical psychologist in independent practice. She is also Director of the FAP Specialty Clinic within the Psychological Services and Training Center at the University of Washington, where she is involved in teaching, supervision and research on treatment development. Her publications and presentations include work on healing posttraumatic stress disorder interpersonal trauma with FAP, disorders of the self, power issues in marital therapy, incorporating Eastern wisdom into psychotherapy, racism and minority groups, teaching youth to be peace activists, and women’s empowerment via reclaiming purpose and passion. She is on the Fulbright Senior Specialists Roster, has presented "Master Clinician" sessions at the Association for Behavior and Cognitive Therapy, and has led numerous workshops nationally and internationally. She is interested in behaviorally informed multi-modal approaches to healing and growth that integrate mind, body, emotions and spirit. e-mail: mavis@u.washington.edu

Robert J. Kohlenberg, Ph.D., ABPP, co-originator of FAP, is a professor of psychology at the University of Washington, where he held the position of Director of Clinical Training from 1997 to 2004. The Washington State Psychological Association honored him with a Distinguished Psychologist Award in 1999. He is on the Fulbright Senior Specialists Roster, and has presented "Master Clinician" and "World Round" sessions at the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies. He has presented FAP workshops both in the United States and internationally, and has published papers on migraine, obsessive-compulsive disorder, depression, intimacy of the therapeutic relationship, and a FAP approach to understanding the self. He has attained research grants for FAP treatment development, and his current interests are identifying the elements of effective psychotherapy, the integration of psychotherapies, and the treatment of co-morbidity. e-mail: fap@u.washington.edu