Tom Caplan operates the Caplan Therapy Centre in Montreal, which offers individual and group counseling services. The document provides an overview of Caplan's qualifications and experience, as well as the services offered through his private practice and affiliations. These include anger management groups, domestic violence counseling, marriage counseling, and training workshops on topics like behavior management and the Needs ABC intervention model. The Needs ABC model focuses on determining a client's relationship needs and collaborating on productive strategies to meet those needs while considering emotions.

1. Services Offered & Approach Used
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2. Caplan Therapy Centre
 Tom Caplan, MSW
 Phone: 514-737-7208
 Fax: 514-737-0497
 eMail: tcaplan@sympatico.ca
 Web: www.tomcaplanmsw.com
 Web: www.needs-abc.com
 5845 Cote des Neiges
 Suite 440
 Montreal, QC
 H3S 1Z4
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3. Present Clinical Work
 Adjunct Professor at McGill S.W. School
 McGill Domestic Violence Clinic
 Research
 Papers
 Books
 Designated DV Expert in the Quebec Court System
 Private Practice
 Approved AAMFT Clinical Supervisor
 Caplan Therapy Centre
 Montreal Anger Management Centre
 McGill Domestic Violence Clinic
 Clinical Training on Behaviour Management and the
Needs ABC Model
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4. Caplan Therapy Centre
Centre de Therapie Caplan
 English language men’s groups for anger management (including DV)
 French language women’s groups for anger management (including DV)
 McGill Domestic Violence Clinic
 English services for men
 Support for women (during the school year)
 Individual counselling
 Marriage and family therapy
 Christian counselling
 Jewish counselling
 Sex therapy
 Testing for school-aged children
 Workshops and trainings tailored to the needs of the resource:
 Behaviour management
 Anger in the workplace
 Improving compliance in clients (O.T.’s, physios, M.D.’s, etc.)
 The Needs ABC intervention model
 Group work
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5. Professional Status of CTC
 All clinicians have a minimum of a Master’s level
degree
 All are members of a professional order
 All are trained in the Needs ABC Model as well as
other accredited intervention models
Note: We are the only resource for Anger Management
whose clinicians all are accredited by a professional
order.
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6. 6

7. Quest for the
“Holy Grail” of Relational Therapy
 Looking for a better and more effective way of helping clients – individuals, couples and
families – to move forward with an improved quality of life together.
 This quest exists despite the brilliant approaches created by – but not limited to:
 Jacobson
 Gottman Have any of you presented?
 Greenberg
 Johnson So – How am “I“ feeling
 White
 Miller
today?
 Rollnick
 Teyber What do I need to feel
 De Shazer better?
 Ellis
 Glasser
 And others
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8. What I Have Learned
 All models have merit and can succeed or fail
depending upon the therapists style and/or
personality
 The best way to work on a problem is NOT to work on
the problem
 Individual client needs and feelings in relationships
need to be defined and clarified
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9. Model
[Needs ABC]
 This model is presently being used with problems such
as:
 Substance abuse
 Anger management - DV
 Gambling
 There are two parts to the model:
 1. Determining a clients relational needs
 2. Collaborating on strategies to get needs met
productively with an eye on emotion
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10. 10
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11. Behaviour Management
 Treatment Goals?
 The immediate cessation of all forms of inappropriate behaviour
within and without the family or contextual setting.
 Effective case management: if several professionals are involved in
treating the client (s)
 Creating and Maintaining Hope
 Stages of Treatment
 Stage 1: Creating a Context for Change
 Stage 2: Creatively Challenging Old Patterns and Expanding New
Alternatives
 Stage 3: Consolidation of New More Productive Behaviours
 Restoration of Positive Behaviours versus Retribution
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12. Needs ABC Approach
 Does all 3:
 Creating a Context for Change (safety)
 Supportively Challenges Old Patterns and Promotes
New Alternatives to Problem-Solving through:
 Consolidation of New More Productive Behaviours
 Restoration of Positive Behaviours versus Retribution
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13. The Most Difficult Journey
The most difficult journey of all is the distance between
two people.
Author unknown – Perhaps a take off on the Victor Borge quote: “Laughter is the shortest
distance between two people.”
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14. Most Important Prognostic Factors
Difficult to
measure Common Factors associated with Psychotherapy Outcome
 “Extra-therapeutic” Factors (40%) - (e.g., safe and stable housing, secure
employment, adequate financial resources, positive interactions, supports in the
community)
 Therapeutic Alliance (30%) - (e.g., a health care provider’s non-judgmental
attitude, warmth, respect and caring)
 Placebo Effect / Expectancy (15%) – (MOTIVATION: a client’s sense of hope and
expectation for recovery)
 Therapy Model or Technique (15%) – (cognitive-behavioural therapy, mindfulness-
based stress reduction, etc.)
Asay, T.P. and M.J. Lambert (1999) 'The Empirical Case for the Common Factors in Therapy: Quantitative Findings', in
Hubble et al. (1999).
Bachelor, A. (1988) 'How Clients Perceive Therapist Empathy: A Content Analysis of 'Received' Empathy', Psychotherapy:
Theory, Research and Practice 25: 227-40.
Bordin, E.S. (1979) 'The Generalizability of the Psychoanalytic Concept of the Working Alliance', Psychotherapy:
Theory, Research and Practice 16(3): 252-60.Kitron, D. (2007). Psychoanalytic psychotherapy: The immeasurable
profession. Psychoanalytic Review, 94(3), 463-473.
Bachelor, A. and A. Horvath (1999) 'The Therapeutic Relationship', in Hubble et al. (1999), pp. 133-78.
Krupnick, J.L. et al. (1996) 'The Role of the Therapeutic Alliance in Psychotherapy and Pharmacotherapy Outcome:
Findings in the National Insitute of Mental Health Treatment of Depression Collaborative Research Program', Journal
of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 64: 532-39.
Lambert, M. J. & Barley, D. E. (2001). Research summary on the therapeutic relationship and psychotherapy outcome.
Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, Practice, Training, Vol 38(4), 357-361.
Orlinsky, D., Grawe, K. and Parks, B. (1994) Process and outcome in psychotherapy: Noch einmal. in A. Bergin and S.
Garfield (Eds). The Handbook of Psychotherapy and Behavior Change. (4th Ed) Toronto: Wiley.
The Heart & Soul of Change: What Works in Therapy (1999). M. Hubble, B. Duncan, S. Miller (Eds) . Washington DC: APA
Press.
Weinberger, J. (2006). Common factors aren't so common: The common factors dilemma. Clinical Psychology: Science and
Practice, 2(1), 45-69 www.needs-abc.com 14

15. Therefore: Strengths of Model
 The model helps clients to take responsibility by
focusing on THEIR needs (not on others such as the
partner, the employer , the system, etc.)
 This model helps clients to feel understood and
supported (joining)
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16. Needs Acquisition and Behaviour Change Model
An Integrated, Relational, Client-Focused Approach
to Therapy – using concepts also described in:
 Cognitive-Behavioural / Motivational
 (Ellis 1997, Jacobsen 1995, Miller & Rollnick 1991)
 Narrative
 (White 1990, Jenkins 1990, Avis-Myers 2004)
 Solution Focused
 (De Shazer 1991, I.K. Berg 1993)
 Emotion Focused
 (Greenberg & Johnson 1988, Greenberg & Pavio 1997)
 Process-Oriented
 (Shulman 1992, Teyber, 2000, Caplan, 2005)
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17. Basic Assumption of the Model
 It is the NEED (as described in the theme of a
client’s narrative) that DRIVES the EMOTIONS.
 It is EMOTION that DRIVES the BEHAVIOURS.
 MEETING THE NEED – through appropriate
behaviour – will result in EXTINGUISHING the
inappropriate BEHAVIOUR.
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18. The Needs ABC Model’s Focus:
 On Relational needs – NOT on client behaviours!
(defensiveness - shame!)
 On the emotions they predict when unmet
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19. The Needs ABC Model’s strategy:
 Illuminate a client’s missing relational
needs
 Highlight emotions that are more
relationally productive
 Help clients to
 communicate these needs productively;
and/or
 Acquire these needs more functionally
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20. Benefits of Using Model
 It is a way of listening
 You can continue to use your own style and strategies, etc.
 You can integrate it with the model you are using.
 It gives clients “answers” – something tangible to work with.
 You can “label” the client’s struggle
 Relational triggers are demystified
 It helps to lead clients away from a “power struggle” and towards
collaborative problem-solving.
 The model transcends sexual, racial and cultural issues.
 The model can also reduce anxiety for clients with Mental Health
Issues.
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21. Interesting Quote
 They may forget what you said, but they will never
forget how you made them feel.
Carl Buchner
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22. Needs ABC Emotion Concepts
 “Emotion Focus” Helping the client to
understand their emotional possibilities.
 “Emotion Conscious” Helping the client
to understand which emotions are more
useful in problem-solving.
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23. Needs ABC Emotion Focus
 Less “Useful” [productive] emotions tend to
drive problematic behaviours and, as a result,
tend not to get our needs met.
 More “Useful” [productive] emotions tend to
expose more appropriate options for satisfying
unmet needs.
Note: A “useful emotion” is one that will facilitate problem-
resolution at that time.
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24. Questions
Trainings
Available
 Tom Caplan, MSW
(514) 737-7208
 tcaplan@sympatico.ca

www.needs-abc.com
 www.tomcaplanmsw.com
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25. Questions
Trainings Available
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