DBT, FAP, and ACT: How empirically oriented are the new behavior therapy technologies?

Abstract

Dialectical Behavior Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, and Functional Analytic Psychotherapy have recently come under fire for “getting ahead of their data” (Corrigan, 2001). The current article presents a descriptive review of some of the actual evidence available. Dialectical Behavior Therapy and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy have a small but growing body of outcome research supporting these procedures and the theoretical mechanisms thought to be responsible for them. Functional Analytic Psychotherapy has a limited research base, but its central claim is well substantiated. The claims made in the published literature about these technologies, at least by their originators, seem proportionate to the strength of the current evidence. There is no indication that those interested in the new wave of behavior therapy innovations are less committed to empirical evaluation than has always been the case in behavior therapy.