Behavioral Activation

Behavioral Activation (BA) is a treatment to help people understand the factors that exist in their lives that might be causing their problems and to make specific behavioral changes based on this information. Life events such as loss, trauma, transition, and relationship distress, among other things, naturally result in a person experiencing a less rewarding life and experiencing difficult feelings. Unfortunately, the behaviors used to cope with such feelings, such as withdrawal, avoidance and rumination, actually end up worsening the negative feelings, and the coping strategies often create their own host of problems. A major goal of BA is to help people step out of this “depression loop” where feelings of depression spur the use of behaviors that actually feelings of depression.