Behavioural Therapy at SFU

Behavioural therapy arose from the concepts of basic research, is a basic psychotherapeutic orientation based on empirical psychology and comprises disorder-specific and non-specific therapy methods.

Modern behavioural therapy is a holistic person model that focuses on the person in their active role, in their search for an independent life, in social relationships, with the desire to participate in social processes, in their problems with psychological, emotional, psychosomatic stress, thoughts, feelings, behavioural patterns and physical complaints, behavioural patterns and physical complaints, in a therapeutic relationship, shaped and accompanied by therapists with empathy, warmth and flexibility, in a method that is in a state of continuous change, be it cognitive, behavioural, emotional and body-related and continuous further development, but above all sees individuality as its basic attitude.

It sees problems as an imbalance between the ACTUAL and TARGET state.
A problem-solving process is initiated, individual programmes are created in order to strive for change. In this working alliance between two equal partners, treatment is seen as “help for self-help”. The aim is to gain self-control over the problem, achieve greater self-efficacy and thus generate personal freedom of action. (cf. Batra, 2013)

Modern behavioural therapy is the reformulation of a method that emerged from psychology, developed standardised methods based on general principles and, as one of the most successful schools of therapy at the SFU, contributes to the academisation of the profession of psychotherapist.

Curriculum (PDF, in German)

Admission to this method requires positive completion of the psychotherapeutic propaedeutic course, which can be completed either externally or at SFU. An admission procedure then opens up the training path to modern behavioural therapy for students.

Essential components of the programme are theoretical and practical content, individual and group self-awareness, individual and group supervision and language as an intervention. The courses serve to impart basic knowledge and practical exercises that accompany the practical training and thus provide the basis for the profession of behavioural therapist.

The training programme is supplemented with application-oriented teaching and learning methods, lectures, discussions, group work, video analyses, case work, explorations of case studies and role plays. The SFU’s own outpatient clinics offer internships and practical activities in dealing with patients. Students of psychotherapy science are thus offered access to working with patients.

Individual contents of the curriculum (FS VT 2017)

The course Scientific Foundations of the Behavioural Therapy Method serves as a basis and preparation for participants to acquire basic knowledge and application skills.

Psychopathology provides insights into the basics of descriptive psychopathological diagnostics, teaches the competent implementation of behavioural therapy explorations, teaches the use of psychometric procedures and sees the creation, production and development of psychopathological findings as its learning objective.

The focus of the disease models is on recognition, diagnosis and treatment. Essential areas of this course are the teaching of basic knowledge of the disorder models for the subsequent treatment of mental illnesses.

Psychotherapeutic diagnostics, as an important part of therapy, conveys application-oriented content in order to give sufficient space to the scientific understanding of behavioural therapy and to prepare students to understand differentiations and to learn to respond to individual characteristics with empathy.

The standard methods of modern behavioural therapy enable future psychotherapists to work together with their patients to achieve treatment goals effectively and efficiently. The use of these proven psychological approaches is an important part of the therapeutic process. In this course, the focus is on teaching techniques and tools that can be used flexibly, in the sense of problem-solving, in order to approach the desired therapeutic goals.

In disorder-specific seminars, content on individual clinical pictures and their treatment techniques is taught in order to obtain tools for therapeutic action and dealing with mentally ill people.

Conversation techniques, relationship building and relationship design, essential characteristics and effective factors in the therapeutic process, are developed together in a group setting and practised in role plays.

Other areas of specialisation in this method-specific training include social skills training, skills training, relaxation techniques, mindfulness-based and emotion-focused techniques and body-oriented approaches.

The same attention should be paid to schema therapy at this point. As a further development of cognitive behavioural therapy, it is offered to psychotherapists in training under supervision in the form of in-depth basic modules in the final part of training in order to underline the modernity of behavioural therapy.

Supervision, self-awareness and internship reflections represent areas of this training programme that aim to sharpen the ability for self-reflection and further personal development.

Equipped with strategies, intervention techniques and tools, equipped with theoretical content and practical know-how, the training parts form a foundation to prepare students for independent work with patients and to encourage them to practice the profession of psychotherapist (behavioural therapy) in order to obtain the qualification to practice as “academic psychotherapists” at the end of this university training path.

(cf. Pritz, A., Fiegl, J., Laubreuter, H., Rieken, B., 2020 )

Basic book on behavioural therapy
Diagnostics, methods, areas of application, language analyses
Leibetseder, Max (ed.)
Pabst, 2018, 624 pages

This textbook describes current evidence-based treatment options, which are summarised under the umbrella term “behavioural therapy”. The clinically experienced authors go far beyond the classic learning theory approach and offer a rich spectrum of information – also for members of other schools of therapy. Explanatory connections between basic scientific findings and practical relevance are clarified continuously and in detail. The book focuses on the functionality of language and its effectiveness. Language and its meaning are presented in protocol analyses and content analyses and related to their linguistic operationalisations.

This results in an understanding of a problem and the therapeutic steps that is as transparent and objective as possible. The unusual symbiosis between learning theories and linguistic theories is particularly fascinating. Individual book chapters illustrate the direct application of linguistically oriented diagnostic or therapeutic techniques step by step; readers learn to reflect on and substantiate therapeutic dialogues in a new way. Whether as basic literature for training or as a reference work for daily therapeutic practice: the book contains the entire canon of behavioural therapy – and much more.

Procedure for the 2025 admission process

1. two admission interviews with teaching therapists of the behavioural therapy method:
Dr Karin Kollitsch (Mail: karin.kollitsch@gmail.com, Tel.: +43 676 699 9300) and Petra Hulle-Wegl BA.pth. (Mail: petra.hulle-wegl@sfu.ac.at, Tel.: +43 664 488 27 12). Registrations for the talks can be made as of now.

2. a full-day admission seminar at the SFU Vienna – with teaching therapists of the behavioural therapy method – on Friday, 27.06.2025 from 9:00-18:00 (presence SFU Vienna).
After successful completion of the two admission interviews, registration for the admission seminar takes place (see method admission seminars for the respective winter semester).

3. we expressly point out that a psychotherapeutic propaedeutic certificate must be submitted by 31 August 2025 for the intended start of training in September 2025.

Costs for admission & admission: € 480,-
This includes the processing of the documents, two interviews, participation in a seminar (or three interviews), information meetings, crediting procedure, etc.

Contact Finance and Controlling:
Mail: ptw-accounting@sfu.ac.at
Tel: +43 1 798 40 98 304
Opening and telephone hours: Mon-Thu: 10:00 – 15:00 / Fri: 10:00 – 15:00 (Fridays only available by telephone)
Address: Freudplatz 1, 3rd floor, room 3002

• Continue to the payment modalities

• VT-list-of-all-teaching-therapists-and-supervisors_status_28_02_2025 (PDF, in German)
• People Search – Faculty of Psychotherapy Science

Here you will find the lists of psychotherapists and psychotherapists in training under supervision who have been certified by the SFU as having completed the specialisation in behavioural therapy in accordance with the requirements of the Psychotherapy Act and the training guidelines of the Psychotherapy Advisory Board at the Federal Ministry of Health:

• Liste der Psychotherapeut*innen – Juni 2025.xlsx (in German)
• Liste der Psychotherapeut*innen in Ausbildung unter Supervision – Juli 2025.xlsx (in German)

Information available soon…

Past events

Seminar with Univ.-Doz. Dr Gerald Gatterer:
Dealing with difficult patients

Workshop with Dr Alice Sendera:
DBT body skills – I always have my body with me!