ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that function provides an elegant way to think about the presentation of practitioners’ client, liberating them from some of the limitations of having to think rigidly about identifying a specific disorder and selecting the accompanying protocol. Diagnostic classification systems emphasise the differences between various so-called disorders based on lists of presenting symptoms, and clinicians are encouraged to categorise clients based on the form of their presentation. Psychological therapies subscribing to diagnostic classification systems similarly tend to focus on form. A. T. Beck’s Cognitive Therapy is a notable case, having developed many disorder-specific variants of its basic model, with the expectation that practitioners select the right model for the right form or presentation. Being a transdiagnostic model, Acceptance & Commitment Therapy promotes a different stance, encouraging a focus on function rather than form.
