Process-Based Behavior Therapy (PBBT®): Where Relational Frame Theory Meets Clinical Practice

Process-based behavior therapy (PBBT®) is a recently developed therapeutic approach based almost entirely on the core behavioral process of arbitrarily applicable relational responding (AARR), as postulated by relational frame theory (RFT), and in particular on advances in the theory made in recent years. In particular, PBBT directs its attention towards the hyper-dimensional multi-level (HDML) framework for conceptualizing relational responding and the basic behavioral unit that emerged from that framework, called the ROE unit (i.e., the ongoing dynamic interaction of Relating, Orienting, and Evoking), for conceptualizing human psychological events. The current article seeks to outline and provide an introduction to PBBT as a contemporary behavioral therapeutic approach to psychological suffering and mental well-being. Toward this aim, the ROE unit and related RFT concepts will first be summarized followed by presentation of three key components of PBBT. Clinical examples are provided throughout to help illustrate the tight links between updated RFT and its clinical application in PBBT.