Clinical Decisions in Behavior-Analytic Therapy

Abstract

Many researches have described verbal and non-verbal behaviors emitted by therapists and clients during therapy. This paper presents information concerning the case of a client that were in therapy for 12 sessions. Client is a 54 years old woman who worked as a maid in a hotel. She lived with her son, who is 38 years old. Her religion is catholic. In the first session, she said she looked for therapy because she was very sad. In this paper, for each session, the most important data, functional analysis and therapeutic decisions are presented. In the early sessions, analysis indicated that the client emitted escape behaviors, especially not assuming difficulties in relation to her mother and to her son. As far as therapy evolved, client assumed that she had many problems concerning her family. She also assumed that she was unsatisfied about her job and that she had had bad experiences in affective relationships. Non-punishing audience is argued to be an essential intervention in therapy, because it establishes therapeutic relationship and it helps the therapist obtaining information about operating contingencies. The importance of shaping verbal reports is discussed in terms of guiding environmental observation and self-observation and in terms of providing relevant information for functional analysis. Self-rules formulated in bad-ended affective relationships are related to escape behaviors emitted in the therapy sessions and to escape behaviors emitted in the presence of other men the client was in contact to. Feelings of guilty and indignity are discussed as products from client’s relationships with her parents and with religion.