Anton Hafkenscheid

• Functional Analytic Psychotherapy (FAP) is a therapeutic approach, using the here and now of the patient-therapist relationship to help personality-disordered patients change maladaptive behaviour patterns. FAP’s theory and practice is guided by Skinner’s operant conditioning paradigm. This article introduces the assumptions and central principles of FAP.

Wies van den Bosch Ad Kaasenbrood

• The Function Assertive Community Treatment Team Public Mental Health in Arnhem has concluded that for some patients with personality disorders access to the specialized treatment programs like Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) seems to be impossible. Two groups of patients can be distinguished: either they seek contact with mental health care time and again, but lack the skills to continue treatment, or they seek treatment in an assertive and sometimes even aggressive way, without being able to create a good working alliance. The FACT team started joint treatment with an experienced DBT therapist in order to make DBT accessible for these patients. Five patients were referred. Data of the treatments were analyzed and the systematic nature of the applied interventions was described. For two of the patients, who can be seen as extreme examples of both groups, the results of the analyses are presented. It is concluded that it is possible to create a working alliance with all patients with personality disorders.

Sonia E. Letzter-Pouw Leontine Veerman

• This article is the account of the therapeutic process a second generation member of survivors of the Holocaust underwent. It is written from the viewpoint of the client. The client relates how her parents’ Second World War experiences and their non-verbal messages put her at the edge of the abyss. She describes the influence on her emotional development of the various therapies she underwent, how she was able to reconcile with her past, and how she liberated herself from the emotional ballast and started a new and lively life.