The National Register of Health Service Psychologists
Abstract
In this commentary on the important cases of "Carey," "Michelle," and "Mary" conducted by Dr. My Frankl (Frankl, Wennberg, Berggraf, & Philips, 2020), I begin with some general considerations on the importance of assessment and case formulation in Affect Phobia Therapy (APT) and how these considerations impact on the experiential interventions of APT. Next I specifically review Frankl’s three case studies, with a focus on: how Alcohol Use Disorder (AUD) is embedded in close family relationships; the connection between AUD and affect regulation; the role of feelings of shame in AUD; individualizing and adjusting APT treatment based on feedback from ongoing therapy; Frankl’s activation of transference feelings; the issue of sobriety before treatment; activating inhibitory affects and maladaptive defenses; Frankl’s missing some moments of connection; and an example of Frankl’s conducting the two-chair technique skillfully and successfully. I end with a proposal for enhancing Frankl’s narrative analysis with two methodologies from APT: the "Ten-Session Summary Form," and the micro-analytic coding approach of the "Achievement of Therapeutic Objectives Scales" (ATOS)
