Mode deactivation therapy and cognitive behavioral therapy: A description of treatment results for adolescents with personality beliefs, sexual offending and aggressive behaviors.

Abstract

This paper is a comparison of two groups of adolescent sexual offenders receiving different types of therapy; one group participated in Treatment As Usual (TAU), which is a Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) based approach, and the other group engaged in Mode Deactivation Therapy (MDT). The data presented is reflective of treatment comparisons not a research protocol. The results are descriptive and not necessarily comparison research. MDT is an empirically based therapy, based on CBT, Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT; Linehan, 1993), and Functional Analytic Psychotherapy (FAP; Kohlenberg & Tsai, 1993), recently implemented in the Behavioral Studies Program, existing in Portsmouth, Virginia. MDT is a methodology that systematically assesses and expands underlying compound core beliefs that are a product of their unconscious experience merging with their cognitive processing, acceptance, balance, and validation. By addressing these beliefs, MDT examines underlying perceptions that may be applicable to setting in motion the mode related charge of aberrant schemas, that enable the behavior integration of DBT principles (Beck, 1996; Nezu et a], 1998). The MDT system also implements the Case Conceptualization method based an adaptation of the Beck (1996) suggested methodology of mode deactivation. Results suggest that MDT may be more effective in this treatment research than TAU, evident by reduced internal distress, resulting from various psychological disorders, and reduced sex offending risk. ********** The focus of MDT is based on the work of Aaron Beck, M.D., particularly his recent theoretical work, the system of (Beck, 1996, Alford & Beck, 1997). Other aspects of MDT have been included in the Behavior Analytic literature, such as Kohlenberg and Tsai (1993), Functional Analytic Psychotherapy (FAP), as well as, Dialectic Behavior Therapy (DBT) (Linehan, 1993). The specific application of MDT is delineated by Apsche, Ward, and Evile (2002) in an article, which specified the applied methodological implications for MDT with specific typologies. The article also provided a theoretical study case study that illustrates the MDT methodology. Beck (1996) suggested that the model of individual schemas (linear schematic processing) does not adequately address a number of psychological problems, therefore the model must be modified to address such problems. Working with adolescents who present with complex typologies of aberrant behaviors, it was necessary to address this typology of youngsters from a more global methodology, to address their impulse control and aggression. Beck (1996) describes the notion as a network of cognitive, affective, motivational, and behavioral components. He further described as consisting of integrated sections or suborganizations of personality, that are designed to deal with specific demands. Beck continues to describe primal modes as including the derivatives of ancient organizations that evolved in prehistoric circumstances and are manifested in survival reactions and in psychiatric disorders. Beck (1996) also explains that the concept of charges (or cathexes) being related to the fluctuations in the intensity gradients of cognitive structures. Beck, Freeman and Associates (1990) suggested that cognitive, affective and motivational processes are determined by the idiosyncratic structures or schema that constitute the basic elements of personality. This is a more cognitive approach suggesting that the schema is the determinant to the mood, thought, and behavior. Alford and Beck (1997) explain that the schema typical of personality disorder is theorized to operate on a more continuous basis; the personality disorders are more sensitive to a variety of stimuli than other clinical syndromes. Mode Deactivation Therapy and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Further study of cognitive therapy emphasizes the characteristic patterns of a person's development, differentiation, and adaptation to social and biological environments (Alford & Beck, 1997). …