This beginner-friendly workshop gives an overview of how therapists can use two helpful questionnaires: the Intrex (Benjamin, 2000), and the Relational Cognitions and Affects Questionnaire (RCA-Q: Critchfield & Benjamin, 2016). These tools help therapists understand how people think, feel, and act in relationships—with others and with themselves. Both questionnaires are based on Lorna Smith Benjamin’s Structural Analysis of Social Behavior model (SASB: Benjamin, 1974; 1996) including its parallel models for tracking thoughts and feelings about relationships. SASB is a descriptive measure of interpersonal behavior used to track patterns described within and across relationships. It is organized around the three distinctions of Focus, Affiliation, and Interdependence, and can be very helpful to refine and focus work with clients who experience interpersonal problems (including their relationship to themselves) as well as the variety of affective, cognitive, and behavioral disturbances that flow from and contribute to those problems. The workshop will introduce the model, measures, and approach to scoring and interpretation.

This beginner-friendly workshop gives an overview for use of Lorna Smith Benjamin’s Structural Analysis of Social Behavior model (SASB: Benjamin, 1974; 1996) to develop clinical case formulations rooted in copy process theory. SASB is a descriptive measure of interpersonal behavior used to track patterns described within and across relationships. It is organized around the three distinctions of Focus, Affiliation, and Interdependence, and can be very helpful to refine and focus work with clients who experience interpersonal problems (including their relationship to themselves) as well as the variety of affective, cognitive, and behavioral disturbances that flow from and contribute to those problems. The workshop will introduce the model and case formulation framework. Real-life examples will be used to illustrate application of the approach. Learning objectives: Participants will be able to: (1) Describe the SASB model in terms of its three underlying dimensions of Focus, Affiliation, and Interdependence (2) Use SASB to describe patient patterns in the present (3) Use SASB to identify copy process patterns (4) Interpret interpersonal case formulation patterns at a level that can enhance and inform psychotherapy interventions