Manualized Behavior Therapy

Treatment manuals for psychological disorders are written materials that identify key concepts, procedures, and tactics for the delivery of a clinical intervention. Treatment manuals are specifically designed to help modify the factors and processes believed to produce, maintain, or increase the magnitude or frequency of problematic behavior. There is considerable diversity in regard to the level of specification in a particular manualized therapy, which is a function of the type of treatment being employed and the manual's stage of development. Nonetheless, all manualized the rapies provide rules pertaining to how therapists are to prepare for treatment, describe what they should do during the session itself, and characterize how the process of therapy is to proceed over time.