Background: Dog-assisted therapy (DAT) is hypothesized to help children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and Down syndrome (DS). Methods: The present authors compared synchronous movement patterns of these children (n = 10) and their therapy dogs during the first and last session of a DAT programme, and their post-therapy changes in emotional…

Background: Needle phobias are common in children and adults worldwide. One effective intervention for this phobia is exposure therapy where a participant is gradually exposed to increasing levels of the fear-evoking stimulus while differential reinforcement is applied. This intervention, however, may be difficult to implement with some medical…

Anxiety interventions involving social skills training and CBT for youth with ASD have shown promise, but few studies have examined the effects on social functioning or the maintenance of treatment gains. This study evaluated change in social skills during a randomized controlled trial of CBT and during the 1-year follow-up for 25 adolescents with…

Academic procrastination is a multifaceted problem with cognitive, behavioral, and motivational correlates. Considered from an acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) point of view, these correlates relate to experiential avoidance and cognitive fusion. This article describes a brief ACT intervention for reducing procrastination.

This is the introductory article to a special series in Cognitive and Behavioral Practice on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). Instead of each article herein reviewing the basics of ACT, this article contains that review. This article provides a description of where ACT fits within the larger category of cognitive behavior therapy (CBT):…

The present article summarizes the assumptions, model, techniques, evidence, and diversity/social justice commitments of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). ACT focused on six processes (acceptance, defusion, self, now, values, and action) that bear on a single overall target (psychological flexibility). The ACT model of behavior change has…

Constraint-induced (CI) therapy is a term given to a family of efficacious neurorehabilitation treatments including to date: upper extremity CI movement therapy, lower extremity CI movement therapy, pediatric CI therapy, and CI aphasia therapy. The purpose of this article is to outline the behavior analysis origins of CI therapy and the ways in…

Approximately 90% of cardiac events are attributable to a small number of modifiable behavioral risk factors that, if changed, can greatly decrease morbidity and mortality. However, few at-risk individuals make recommended behavioral changes, including those who receive formal interventions designed to facilitate healthy behavior. Given evidence…

The goal of this paper is to familiarize clinicians with the use of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) for problem anger by describing the application of ACT to a case of a 45-year-old man struggling with anger. ACT is an approach and set of intervention technologies that support acceptance and mindfulness processes linked with commitment and…

Objective: This study was designed to quantitatively evaluate the effectiveness of motivational interviewing (MI) interventions for adolescent substance use behavior change. Method: Literature searches of electronic databases were undertaken in addition to manual reference searches of identified review articles. Databases searched include…

This report describes three single-case experimental evaluations of Behavioral Activation Treatment of Anxiety (BATA) applied with a 51-year-old male, a 62-year-old female, and a 53-year-old female, each of whom met DSM-IV criteria for anxiety. Each case was a clinical replication of an initial trial of BATA reported in Turner and Leach (2009).…

This paper focuses on the integration of Motivational Interviewing (MI) and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) in the treatment of eating disorders. Although CBT is regarded as the treatment of choice in this population, it nevertheless has limitations: some patients fail to engage, drop out from treatment prematurely, or simply do not improve.…

Parents (N = 21) of children with autism spectrum disorders responded to a survey on adherence to skills instruction and problem behavior management strategies they had previously been observed to master in a standardized training curriculum based on the principles of applied behavior analysis. Survey items were guided by existing models of and…

Comments on the article by Miller and Rose (September 2009). As Miller and Rose opened "the black box of treatment to examine linkages between processes of delivery and client outcomes" (p. 529) in motivational interviewing (MI), it is important that their model include factors from the social context that may explain conditions that enhance or…

The purpose of this study was to determine if the behavioral and learning benefit found from the use of therapy balls as classroom seats in children with attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) (e.g., Schilling, Washington, Billingsley, & Deitz, 2003) generalizes to children with dyslexia who suffer from similar attention problems…