The Autism Society Event and Education Recordings Archive

The experience of living with an autism spectrum disorder is often difficult, traumatizing and life-changing for the entire family unit. These challenges change frequently, depending upon factors such as the affected person’s age, life and developmental stage; family conditions and resources; and social needs and expectations. The Fennell Four Phase Treatment (FFPT™) model offers an empirically validated, step-by-step approach grounded in clinical practice to help people and families coping with chronic conditions solve problems and create positive change. The experience of living with chronic neurobiological disorders, such as autism, Asperger’s syndrome and learning disabilities, is often difficult, traumatizing and life-changing for the entire family unit. Unlike in acute conditions, the challenges of having or living with a person with a chronic disorder change frequently, depending upon factors such as the affected person’s age, life or developmental stage; family conditions and resources; and social needs and expectations. The Fennell Four Phase Treatment (FFPT) model is one of the few tools available to help families and their health care teams integrate the ever-evolving realities of being or living with a person with a chronic disorder into families’ lives.

The FFPT is a multi-phased approach that provides a narrative framework and cognitive map for families, helping them describe, understand and adapt to life with a chronic neurobiological disorder. It is a highly practical, internationally utilized, and empirically validated treatment model that recognizes the influences of cultural, psychosocial, and physical factors in both assessment and treatment.

The FFPT addresses the complexity of chronic conditions by matching best medical practices to four phases experienced by people with chronic disorders and their families – crisis, stabilization, resolution and integration. By identifying different functional capacities and needs at different phases, the FFPT model helps the health care team select the most appropriate and effective interventions. By intervening with therapies suited to the patient’s or family’s current phase, health care providers can help families break out of patterns of repeated crises that usually require more extensive resources in response.

Traditional methods alone frequently fail in treating chronic disorders because they create false dichotomies between mind and body, chronic and acute illness, and the patient’s and family’s experience and the clinician’s participation. The FFPT framework helps families and clinicians better understand the experience of coping with a chronic neurobiological disorder. By providing families with a cognitive map for understanding neurobiological disorders and their impact on families’ lives, it facilitates both acceptance and effectiveness of other established therapies for autism spectrum disorders.

FFPT offers an empirically validated, step-by-step approach grounded in clinical practice to help people and families coping with chronic conditions solve problems and create positive change.

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