Terapia comportamental no Brasil: história de terapeutas

Abstract

This study aimed to describe the history of professional training and development of a group of behavior therapists experienced in Brazil, thereby contributing to the advance of the area. Method: Participants were 13 Brazilians behavior therapists from thirty to forty years of professional work as therapists. As a procedure, it was prepared the Questionnaire of behavior therapists history in Brazil , which included questions that provided data to identify the professionals, and questions directly related to the research problem (such as, "What therapists, teachers or supervisors have been important to your training as a behavior therapist?). The "Questionnaire" was sent to the participants and they returned it by email. The responses to the Questionnarie where analyzed, which led to the description of the history of training and professional careers of participants and identifying the professionals most mentioned as being important participants in their training as behavior therapists. It was decided then to conduct personally interviews with three people who had their names mentioned the most by using a "Semi-Structured Interview," by electronic recording and transcription. The results showed that: the 13 participants have graduated from 1955 to 1981, in institutions connected mostly at the beginning of Behavior Analysis in Brazil or in which were important precursors of the area: PUCSP, PUCCampinas, Sedes Sapientiae Institute, FFCL Ribeirão Preto. The master trainers most often cited by these therapists were: Maria Amélia Matos, Luiz Otávio de Seixas Queiroz, Hélio José Guilhardi, Rachel Rodrigues Kerbauy and Alice Maria Delitti (Maly Delitti). The references mainly used in early training as therapists were: Skinner, B. F., Keller and Schoenfeld and JABA (Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis), which seems to indicate a commitment to behavioral science, but also emphasizes the fact that there were not at that time (1960s, 1970s ) specific references in behavior therapy. The absence of model performance was noticed by the main result from Recorded Interviews with the three therapists: Rachel Kerbauy, Hélio Guilhardi and Maly Delitti. All three said that did not have specific training in behavior therapy, thus they used to build their forms of behavior therapy by reading research articles, discussion with peers, training in experimental analysis. It was concluded that early behavior therapists in Brazil have not had role models, and place the hypothesis that they have built their own models, which can be investigated in further studies