What Models/Approaches Have Been Incorporated in AF-CBT?

Consistent with other cognitive-behavioral approaches, AF-CBT includes procedures that target three related ways (“channels”) in which people respond to different circumstances:

• Cognition (thinking)
• Affect (feeling)
• Behavior (doing)

We use the "ABC" model to help understand an individual's unique ways of responding to a particular situation or event.

It is important to point out that the content of AF-CBT is used to target these response channels based on principles and techniques from several models and perspectives. AF-CBT combines elements drawn from:

• Cognitive therapy, which aims to change behavior by addressing a person’s thoughts or perceptions, particularly those thinking patterns that create distorted views
• Behavioral and learning theory, which focuses on modifying habitual responses (e.g., anger, fear) to identified situations or stimuli
• Family therapy, which examines patterns of interactions among family members in order to identify and alleviate problems, and strategies to help reframe how problems are viewed.
• Developmental victimology, which describes how the specific sequelae of exposure to traumatic or abusive experiences may vary for children at different developmental stages and across the lifespan
• Psychology of aggression, which describes the processes by which aggression and coercion develop and are maintained, which can help to understand one’s history as both a contributor to and victim of aggressive behavior.