Updating RFT (More Field than Frame) and its Implications for Process-based Therapy
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THEORETICAL ARTICLE
Updating RFT (More Field than Frame) and its Implications for Process-based Therapy Dermot Barnes-Holmes 1 & Yvonne Barnes-Holmes 1 & Ciara McEnteggart 1
# Association for Behavior Analysis International 2020
Abstract The current article presents a response to the recent call for a focus on psychological processes of change in psychotherapy. In addressing the need for a more process-based focus, the need for clarity in defining psychological processes per se becomes apparent, before it is possible to develop process-based therapy. In grappling with this challenge, the current article is divided into two parts. In Part I, we present a modern view of behavioral processes as they apply specifically to verbally sophisticated humans. The view we offer is based on one of the main approaches to human language and cognition within behavioral science, relational frame theory (RFT), which has been updated in recent years. In Part 2, the view of behavioral processes, as seen through the lens of an updated RFT, is used to begin to develop a process-based approach to the assessment and treatment of human psychological suffering. The article ends with two case summaries and a series of brief take-home messages that aim to capture the core elements of the RFT-driven process-based therapy we are currently developing. Keywords RFT . Process-based therapy . HDML framework . ROE
In recent times, there has been a call to focus on psychological processes of change in cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) and in psychotherapy in general (Hoffman & Hayes, 2019). The motivation behind this call is to progress beyond a strictly syndrome-based approach to human psychopathology (hereafter referred to as psychological suffering). There are two expected broad outcomes from this new focus on processes rather than syndromes. First, it will allow researchers and clinicians to develop and refine their understanding of the psychological processes inherent in psychological suffering. Second, it will facilitate improvements in both clinical assessment and treatment, because the fundamental processes may be targeted with increased precision. We certainly see the value in calling for a greater focus on the processes involved in psychological suffering. But, of course, this immediately begs the question—what are
This article was prepared with the support of an Odysseus Group 1 grant awarded to the first author by the Flanders Science Foundation (FWO). * Ciara McEnteggart [email protected] 1
Department of Experimental, Clinical, and Health Psychology, Ghent University, Henri Dunantlaan, 2, B-9000 Ghent, Belgium
these psychological processes? Answering this question is far from a simple matter. There are deep divisions within psychology as a whole and these are manifested, to some extent, within clinical psychology (Wilson, 2012). Perhaps one of the most salient historical divides has been between the behavioral and cognitive traditions (Miller, 2003). The primary goal of the former is to identify and analyze the behavioral
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