3.19 Depression Example #1: Analysis
Jobs, money, and friends are manipulable variables in the context of Justin’s depression. They are part of the setting in which his depression occurs, and he and his therapist can work to directly change these things. Justin’s therapist could be taking a functional contextual approach.
But aren’t these things that any therapist would approach as a cause for depression? Until we can get a 100% accurate physiological test for depression (blood test, x-ray, mri for example) we have to mostly figure out what could be causing it and fixing those things.
For some people, those things aren’t easily manipulated.