Functional Analytic Psychotherapy: Characteristics, Uses And Advantages
Functional analytic psychotherapy ( Functional Analytic Psychotherapy, FAP) is a therapeutic approach in line with the radical behaviorism of BF Skinner, an American psychologist considered for many the father of behaviorism.
The FAP is based on the analysis of the functions of verbal behavior in interpersonal relationships. It is a type of therapy that gives special value to the therapeutic relationship between patient and therapist, understanding this as a context of change. It is an intervention that is effective on its own for a number of disorders, and has also proven useful as a complementary therapeutic approach.
It is combined, for example, with Beck’s cognitive therapy for depression, behavioral activation therapy for depression, and acceptance and commitment therapy. But what else do we know about the FAP? How did it come about? What characterizes it?
Origin of functional analytic psychotherapy
Functional analytic psychotherapy (in English, Functional Analytic Psychotherapy, FAP ) has its origins in the early 90s. Robert J. Kohlenberg and Mavis Tsai (1989, 1991) were two psychotherapists who, based on the use of cognitive-behavioral therapy, found that some of their clients experienced improvements that went beyond the initial goals of treatment.
The importance of the therapeutic relationship
These improvements had to do, above all, with the development of skills to maintain intimate relationships with other people.
Kohlenberg and Tsai wondered about the causes of this phenomenon, and observed that these advances occurred in those cases in which an intense and committed therapeutic relationship had been established.
What is functional analytic psychotherapy?
It is from these observations by Kohlenberg and Tsai that functional analytic psychotherapy was born. FAP is a type of therapy that is included within the “third generation contextual psychotherapies”. It is conceived as a form of therapy based on Skinner’s radical behaviorism.
It emphasizes the exploitation of learning opportunities that arise in the context of the therapeutic relationship established between the therapist and the client in the session itself. Thus, from this type of therapy it is understood that a therapeutic relationship enables the establishment of natural and curative reinforcement contingencies that favor clinical improvements.
Parallels with psychoanalysis: transference and hidden meanings
The emphasis on the therapeutic relationship of functional analytic psychotherapy makes this type of therapy have some unintended parallels with psychodynamic approaches.
This happens especially in relation to the concept of transference in psychoanalysis, although in FAP transference is understood as a set of generalized responses in the therapeutic relationship due to the similarity between the clinical situation and the relationships given in the past.
Parallels are also drawn between FAP and the psychodynamic approach, in the idea that there may be “hidden meanings” beneath the surface of client statements during the consultation session.
Characteristics of the FAP
The FAP shows an interest in the classic problems of psychotherapy, and is an approach to other psychological approaches and orientations. In reality, it is an integrative approach that can be combined with other psychotherapeutic models.
Analytical-functional
Why is it called functional-analytic? Because this means emphasizing the functional analysis of behavior ; not so much with regard to specific and molecular behaviors of the patient, but rather to groups of behavioral patterns that obey the same functional relationship (called “functional class”) and taking into account the functional analysis of verbal behavior.
Therapeutic relationship as a context of exchange
In FAP, in addition, the contingencies that occur in the therapeutic relationship between patient and therapist are of special interest.
The therapeutic relationship is understood as a context of verbal exchange in which important problems occur, the so-called clinically relevant behaviors, which are related to the problems that the client has in his life, that is, outside the session.
Uses of functional analytic psychotherapy
Functional analytic psychotherapy is applied to a wide variety of psychological problems and disorders. It is a useful therapy for problems related to mood, self-esteem, personal relationships, personality disorders, trauma-related disorders …
It is applied both in the adult population and in children and adolescents, and it can be very useful to work on conduct disorders, among other disorders typical of childhood and adolescence.
In itself, FAP is an effective therapy, although, as we said in the introduction, it is also recommended as a complement to other therapies. Thus, it is mostly used in combination with Aaron Beck’s cognitive therapy and other types of therapy.
Advantage
Functional analytic psychotherapy is a type of therapy that can be beneficial in those cases where the therapeutic relationship must acquire a special relevance. Although this type of bond is always necessary for therapeutic success, the truth is that FAP gives it a special value, and understands it as a necessary factor for change.
In this way, in FAP it is not that the therapeutic relationship is a factor that leads to change, but that this relationship is the context itself where that same change occurs.
On the other hand, FAP is a very beneficial therapy for problems that are very defined and where behaviorism can serve to change deeply ingrained patterns of behavior in the person. In addition, it also gives special relevance to language, with which many changes can also be achieved in the patient.
Functional analytic psychotherapy is a type of therapy that has its roots in behaviorism. In it, the therapeutic relationship is a necessary factor for change, the very context where it occurs. It is applied to various problems and disorders and is highly oriented to the analysis of the functions of verbal behavior that occurs within interpersonal relationships, inside and outside the office.
