Behavioural Activation
Behavioural Activation (BA) is a National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) recommended talking-therapy that aims to lift the mood of people with depression by increasing their engagement with pleasurable and meaningful activities. Behavioural Activation is based on the principle that scheduling and completing purposeful and rewarding activities can lift our mood, energise us, and stimulate our interest and pleasure in day-to-day life. The approach is easy to learn and works across different age ranges, depression severity levels, and cultures.
Behavioural Activation is typically delivered in regular sessions with a trained professional, who may be a psychologist, a nurse or a doctor, a pastoral member of staff in a school, a social worker or a charity worker. Behavioural Activation can be delivered face-to-face, by telephone, or online. Written materials and workbooks are often used to guide the person through the intervention.
Behavioural Activation can be described in four core elements:
This is a process by which the A-B-C (Antecedents - Behaviours - Consequences) model can be applied to an individual's circumstances, actions and feelings. The aim of a functional analysis is to understand the causes and consequences of someone's behaviour in the context of their life and experiences.
Creating a weekly plan of enjoyable, purposeful and rewarding activities that can lift a person's mood, re-stimulate their interest and enjoyment in life, and reconnect them with people and things that are important to them.
Maintaining motivation to keep achieving tasks that have been set works best if the person is working towards a personal goal. This goal should be something that they feel is important to them and links to their values. Activities in the weekly schedule are steps to move towards achieving a goal, week by week.
The process of maintaining gains long-term and reducing the likelihood of becoming depressed again.
Behavioural activation has several advantages compared to other therapy models:
- It can be delivered by generic staff following a protocol rather than qualified therapists. Practitioners from different backgrounds working in a range of different settings can be trained to deliver Behavioural Activation, increasing its accessibility and availability.
- Behavioural Activation has been shown to work with a wide range of different client groups, including children, adults, and older adults.
- The training programme for Behavioural Activation is shorter than other therapies; practitioners can become skilled in the approach in a relatively brief period of time.
In summary, BA is more time efficient and less complex when compared to most other treatments for depression.