结论

Conclusion As to the methods, there may be a million and then some, but principles are few. The [person] who grasps principles can successfully select his [or her] own methods. The [person] who tries methods, ignoring principles, is sure to have trouble. —­Harrington Emerson Some have said that FAP boils down to a way of being with a client in a therapeutic relationship. Think of it like this: when one does all the things contained in these pages, a way of being in relationship emerges. Echoing the Bertrand Russell quote that opened this book—­“Neither love without knowledge, nor knowledge without love can produce a good life”—­this way of being bal- ances the “love” of an open, empathic, compassionate stance with the “knowledge” of functional thinking and contextual behavioral science (CBS). The aim is a therapeutic relationship, one that flows with the moment, always asking, “What is needed for this person in this moment?” Here is a poem, written by Gareth, that describes this stance: The FAP Therapist’s Prayer May I see and hear myself. May I see and hear this person in front of me. May I remember what it feels like to stand on the edge of growth. May I be open, and through my openness invite the same. May I hear the past speaking in the present and the longing for a future. May I accept not knowing what the next step is and stand with this other person as they find their next step. May I take risks, big and small, to suggest the next step, may I offer challenges, big and small, without imposing my opinion. May I continue to listen as my opinions rise and fall. May I welcome whatever arises, with concern or comfort or courage or camaraderie, as is needed. May I speak to this, here and now, slipping into the pool of what is real and simple between us, whether it is warm or cold. May I find and feel and serve what matters to this person, this unique person and their piece of the universal. May I know the road this person walks, as best as one can, so I can speak their truth like a loving novelist. May I voice the truths that have fallen silent. May I communicate my affection, generously, without obligating the other to me. May my compassion set this person free. May my compassion set me free. May I do my own work and offer all of this to myself. In this book we’ve laid out the basic ideas and practices of FAP. We have taken the title of the book (and of the series in which this book belongs) to heart: we have made our presentation as simple and clear as possible. Much of our presentation mirrors the way we teach FAP in workshops, class- rooms, and group or individual consultations. We included both the theoretical and practical, bottom-­line clinical teaching that we believe clinicians most crave. At the same time, we resisted the urge to portray FAP and the process of therapy as being simpler than they really are. That wouldn’t be doing you any favors. As we wrote at the beginning, neither the theory nor the book is the therapy itself. It’s up to you to apply the ideas and practices we have provided, and there are lots of ways to do that. We tried to make things simpler, but that does not mean the work is easy. The ideas we’ve given point the way and grant great flexibility in how you walk the FAP way. The bottom line is this: if you are

1. taking a CBS stance toward therapy;
2. understanding what happens in the therapy process in terms of function;
3. participating in an aware, courageous, and loving therapeutic interaction; and
4. using your interaction to shape the behaviors that you determine are functionally related to the client’s clinical issues, then you are doing FAP. As you practice, your ultimate guide should be the process of therapy and your interaction with your client and your grasp of the contexts in which you are working. FAP is about that process. What is real there? The work is not perfected, and rarely is it completed. It is practiced. It is not laid out ahead of time. It is lived. We don’t dictate to our clients—­we relate. Relating is where the change process lies. It’s inevitable that there are aspects of the FAP practice we have not covered adequately. There are things we do in practice or teach to consultees that we’ve not thought to cover here. Please do reach out to the FAP community if and when you need help. May your practice be enriched by the principles of FAP. The remainder of this conclusion offers a few suggestions and wishes as you carry these principles forward into your practice. DELIBERATE PRACTICE There are ways of practicing that are more effective than others. In particular, time spent in prac- tice by itself is not the most important factor for skill development. It matters that you practice deliberately (Ericsson, Krampe, & Tesch-­Romer, 1993): • Attend to specific behaviors and contexts that challenge your performance. • Practice the desired improvements. • Monitor the outcomes of your practice and adapt your practice based on what you observe. This process need not be complicated. In fact, the simpler you can make the practice process the more likely you are to persist with it amidst the demands of a busy professional life. Picking something and working on it with the minimal deliberate practice for viable implementation is more effective than spending hours preparing and finding just the right target. Pick something and go. The process of practice will be more instructive than your contemplation at the outset. Consider this example of deliberate practice: Let’s say you want to work on inquiring more directly about CRB as it happens in the moment. Decide when you will practice this. Perhaps you will practice it with all clients, or perhaps with only those with whom you struggle to inquire. To orient yourself to the practice as you first begin, come up with a couple of questions to help you inquire about CRB: “What did you feel just then?” “Is what is happening right now like what happens with her?” And so forth. The entire planning process above might take five minutes. After you have a plan, remember to actually do the practice. A simple visual reminder on your laptop or therapy clipboard or white- board might be sufficient: “practice” or “evoke.” After each session in which you deliberately practice, or at the end of the week, reflect on how the deliberate practice went. What went well? What would you like to improve for next week? Don’t be discouraged by mistakes. You can learn as much from mistakes as from success, if not more. Incorporate what you learn into the deliberate practice and repeat. Five minutes of reflection about your deliberate practice per week, compounded over months and years of practice, can make an immense difference in your performance. At the end of each chapter in this book, we offered summaries of the key things to do and remember. These may serve as a checklist of competencies for your practice of FAP. CONSULTATION GROUPS Practicing with other professionals is probably the most popular way to learn FAP. You might form or join an existing FAP consultation group or integrate FAP principles into your existing consulta- tion work. Sharing the learning of FAP with other professionals offers the opportunity to practice the principles in the context of genuine interactions with your colleagues. The most important, nonnegotiable practices that must be part of any FAP consultation group are authenticity and attending to the actual process of relating to each other. You should know the 1s and 2s of each other, and you should practice vulnerable disclosure with each other. Elephants in the room should be discussed. All members should be committed to stepping outside of their comfort zones in service of building skills. At the same time, keep in mind that everyone starts where they are, and vulnerability should be consensual and freely chosen. Here are some other useful practices for group consultation: • Sharing logs (for example, risk logs) and briefly reflecting—­verbally or in writing via e-­mail or social media—­on a partner’s log • Case presentation and role-­playing • In vivo process work (for example, processing avoidance, conflict, and so forth in the consultation group) • Experiential exercises and debriefing conversations Obviously this topic warrants much more discussion than can be provided here. A growing number of FAP trainers and practitioners who have started consultation groups can provide guid- ance and other resources. THE FUTURE OF FAP FAP is evolving through the efforts of many people and organizations worldwide, including the Center for the Science of Social Connection led by Jonathan Kanter, Mavis Tsai, and Bob Kohlenberg at the University of Washington in Seattle. There are three key things that FAP needs in order to evolve successfully:
5. Science: As we noted in the introduction, the science supporting FAP as an interven- tion (not the basic learning principles themselves) is underdeveloped. FAP does not meet conventional criteria for “evidence-­based treatment” status. That continues to be a challenge for FAP practitioners and researchers.
6. Innovation: We need to develop innovative applications (for example, protocols, manuals, specific processes) for FAP principles that lend themselves to scientific evalu- ation and that pinpoint where and how FAP principles are most likely to add clinical value.
7. Community: Because community is the foundation for innovation and science, our hope is that this book will inspire the FAP community to innovate its principles and create the scientific research that is needed to validate this approach to therapy. We hope the community will actively evolve FAP into something more impactful and valuable. May we be there for each other.