The San Francisco Bay Area Chapter ACBS is proud to present

Functional Analytic Psychotherapy:  Relationship, Heart and Compassionate Behavior Change

A 2-Day In-Person Experiential Training

Friday May 31 and Saturday June 1, 2024

12 CEs (pending) for Psychologists, LCSWs, and LPCCs

Course Description:

Human beings both cherish relationships and also struggle with them.  The joy of love, and the suffering when love is difficult or ends, are a part of human experience.  Relationships are both the source of our greatest joy and also of our deepest suffering.

When our clients seek help in therapy, they bring with them their unique relationship histories of both joy and struggle.  This allows for special opportunities in the therapy room as the client/therapist relationship grows and real emotion enters the room.  

Functional Analytic Psychotherapy (FAP) is a contextual behavioral therapy, in the same family as Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), and Behavioral Activation, as well as sharing many therapeutic goals and strategies with other cognitive behavioral approaches.  In the world of therapies that excel at helping clients change their relationship with their thoughts and feelings in the service of growing a meaningful life, FAP adds a particular focus on the therapy relationship.  FAP focuses on shaping adaptive interpersonal behaviors in the moment of the therapy interaction. At its heart, FAP holds that the therapeutic relationship is the agent of change and healing (Tsai, Yard & Kohlenberg, 2014) and is dedicated to "establishing intense and curative relationships" achieved through here and now awareness and authenticity.

In this workshop we will begin by introducing the principles and applications of functional analysis, and how to think behaviorally about both in and out of session behavior.  We will address complex behaviors/feelings, such as grief, fear, sorrow, regret, anxiety, awareness, courage and love. We will demonstrate and practice how to do functional analysis as part of the therapeutic interaction.  We will demonstrate and practice therapist skills related to responding effectively to in-the-moment clinically relevant behaviors (CRBs). These skills include evoking and reinforcing adaptive behaviors that help the client build a more effective interpersonal repertoire. 

As presenters, we both value living in a world where we can step toward our most cherished values of peace, connection, justice and love.  In this workshop, we will explore how the therapy relationship becomes the catalyst for increasing the client's awareness of conditioned and looping behaviors, while creating opportunities for immediate practice of courageous behaviors toward valued living.  We will use experiential exercises to help participants identify their problematic behaviors as therapists and to illuminate the contextual variables that evoke them.

This workshop will be highly experiential. Using real and role-play demonstrations, introspection, as well as small group and dyad practice, we will  help you establish a solid foundation in FAP. We believe that therapists who have a “home base” of ACT, DBT, CBT, CFT or other approaches will come away from this workshop knowing how to intensify your current work with in-session prompts and authentic responses.  We will invite you to take risks and to connect with your most aware, courageous, and loving selves.

Target Audience:

Appropriate for mental health professionals including social workers, counselors, psychiatrists and psychologists. This workshop is for clinicians who:

• are familiar with contextual behavioral or similar behavioral therapies (e.g., ACT, CFT, DBT, CBT),

• are familiar with the basic principles of behaviorism, (e.g., reinforcement, extinction) and

• would like to broaden their repertoire to include FAP.

Course Objectives:

After attending this training you will be able to:

1. Explain what is meant by the term "context"
2. Explain what is meant by the term "function"
3. Explain what is meant by the term "behavior"
4. Describe the theoretical basis for Functional Analytic Psychotherapy
5. Identify and describe at least three of the five rules of FAP which guide therapist interventions
6. Explain Clinically Relevant Behaviors (CRB)
7. Describe the role of Awareness, Courage and Love in FAP
8. Practice the five rules of FAP
9. Practice at least 2 exercises that can be used in session with clients to evoke and shape more effective behavior
10. Define what is meant by T1 and T2
11. Identify at least two T1 behaviors therapists commonly struggle with
12. Write an action plan to target at least one CRB1 or T1

Presenters:

Barabara Kohlenberg, Ph.D.

Barbara Kohlenberg, Ph.D. is a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science and also in Family and Community Medicine.   She also serves as interim Dean in the Office for Faculty Affairs.  She is a clinical psychologist, who received her Ph.D. at the University of Nevada, Reno.  Her NIH funded research has focused on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Functional Analytic Psychotherapy (FAP)  and their integration and application with substance use disorders and stigma.  Dr. Kohlenberg is extensively trained in both ACT and FAP,  and has contributed to the literature in these areas and has conducted trainings internationally.  Dr. Kohlenberg is interested in psychotherapy training in psychiatric residency programs, and in growing bedside manner among family medicine residents.

Dr. Kohlenberg has deep interests in the role of compassion, acceptance, and relationship in promoting behavior change.  She cherishes direct patient care, as well as training.   Helping both patients and practitioners learn that one can change one’s relationship with suffering rather than having to “get rid” of suffering is meaningful for her.  The relationship between scientific knowledge and wisdom traditions is also very meaningful for her.

Out of work Dr. Kohlenberg loves cooking, eating, walking, reading/listening to podcasts, and creating and participating in nurturing communities.   She loves the beauty of our desert climate while always also missing the green and grandeur of the Pacific Northwest, where she grew up.

Michael Vurek, LCSW

Michael is a Supervising Licensed Therapist at Guidepost DBT in Corte Madera, California.  He also has a private practice of psychotherapy and consultation.  At Guidepost DBT he provides individual and group psychotherapy in DBT and Radically Open DBT, and supervises pre-licensed associates.  His work is informed by hundreds of hours of training in Cognitive Behavioral Therapies and approaches under the broad umbrella of Contextual Behavioral Science.  He has been learning, practicing, consulting and training within the communities of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (since 2006), Functional Analytic Psychotherapy (since 2012), DBT (Foundationally Trained in 2008) and Radically Open DBT (Intensively Trained in 2019).  

Michael is one of the founders and is past-president of the San Francisco Bay Area Chapter ACBS, and has coordinated many trainings offered by the chapter since 2015.

Michael is a graduate of one of the first classes of the Hutchins School of Liberal Studies at Sonoma State University (1976) and got his MSW from San Diego State University in 1980. He worked for several years in case management, program development and county and nonprofit management, mostly with older adults and their caregivers.  He moved into full time clinical work as a psychiatric social worker in 1990 and began training in CBT and Cognitive Therapy while working at Ross Hospital.  He first went into private practice in 1999.

Outside of work Michael is a co-grandparent in a multigenerational household, crews on racing sailboats on Tomales Bay, takes walks, and putters.

Training Schedule (subject to changes)

Day 1:  

8:30 - 9:00 Check In (no CE)

9:00 -10:30 Introductions and setting the Frame (1.5 hrs)

10:30 – 10:45 Break (No CE)

10:45 – 12:00 FAP - Context and Behavioral Principles (1.25 hrs)

12:00 – 1:00 Lunch (No CE)

1:00 – 2:30 Setting Intentions and Experiential Exercise(1.5 hrs)

2:30 - 2:45 Break (No CE)

2:45 – 4:30 Impacts and mechanisms of change (1.75 hrs)

Day 2: 

9:00 -10:30 Genesis of FAP and application of behavioral principles (1.5 hrs)

10:30 – 10:45 Break (No CE) 

10:45 – 12:00 CRBs and 5 Rules of FAP (1.25 hrs)

12:00 – 1:00 Lunch (No CE)

1:00 – 2:30 5 Rules of FAP (1.5 hrs)

2:30 - 2:45 Break (No CE)

2:45 – 4:30 FAP and DBT; Closing (1.75 hrs)

Fees:

Professional Member early - By May 10	$320
Professional Member regular	$360
Professional Nonmember early – By May 10	$360
Professional Nonmember regular	$400
Student/Intern Member or Non Member	$160
CE Fee	$30

Join the Chapter and get the member discount

for this training and for future trainings in the next year

https://sfba-acbs.wildapricot.org/Join-The-Chapter

Included in the fees: 12 hours of instruction, handouts, coffee/tea and snacks

Disclosures:

Barbara Kohlenberg will receive a fee for teaching this workshop

The costs of this workshop are completely supported by participant fees

Refund Policy
If you cancel your registration:
21 or more days before the date of the event, we’ll refund all of your registration fee or give you credit to a future event;
20 to 7 days before the event, we’ll refund 75% of your fee;
Fewer than 7 days before an event, we’ll refund 50% of your fee.
If you don’t cancel before the event begins, we can’t refund your fees, but we’ll give you a credit toward a future event in the amount of 50% of your registration fee. If we cancel an event for any reason, of course, we’ll refund all of your registration fees. Continuing-education certification fees can be refunded until the day before the event. They become non-refundable on the first day of the event. Continuing-education certification purchased at an event is non-refundable.

If you have any questions about the event please contact Michael Vurek at michaelvurek@gmail.com 

References

1. Kohlenberg, R. J., Kanter, J. W., Bolling, M. Y., Parker, C. R., & Tsai, M. (2021). Enhancing exposure and response prevention with functional analytic psychotherapy for obsessive-compulsive disorder: A multiple baseline evaluation. Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science, 19, 103-111. DOI: 10.1016/j.jcbs.2020.11.002

2.     Baruch, D. E., & Kanter, J. W. (2019). A behavioral activation-transdiagnostic approach to functional analytic psychotherapy. Psychotherapy, 56(3), 352-357. DOI: 10.1037/pst0000237

3.     Jacobson, N. C., Weingarden, H., & Wilhelm, S. (2021). Integrating functional analytic psychotherapy and exposure and response prevention: A case study of an adult with obsessive-compulsive disorder. Psychotherapy, 58(1), 89-97. DOI: 10.1037/pst0000343

4. Kohlenberg, R. J., Kanter, J. W., Bolling, M. Y., & Tsai, M. (2018). Functional Analytic Psychotherapy. The Wiley Handbook of Contextual Behavioral Science, 445-474. DOI: 10.1002/9781118489857.ch19

5.     Sayegh, L., Schoendorff, B., & Kohlenberg, R. J. (2019). Functional Analytic Psychotherapy: A guide for creating intense and curative therapeutic relationships. International Journal of Behavioral Consultation and Therapy, 13(1), 1-13. DOI: 10.1037/ijbct0000115

6.     Callaghan, G. M., & Margison, F. R. (2020). Functional Analytic Psychotherapy in the context of a therapeutic community. Journal of Contextual Behavioral Science, 15, 60-66. DOI: 10.1016/j.jcbs.2019.12.003

7.   López-Bermúdez, M. A., Ferro-García, R., Calvillo-Mazarro, M., & Valero-Aguayo, L. (2021). Importance of the therapeutic relationship: Efficacy of functional analytic psychotherapy with different problems. Clínica y Salud, 32(3), 103-109 https://doi.org/10.5093/clysa2020a32