The current paper is part of an ongoing effort to better connect RFT with the complexities of clinical phenomena. The paper outlines two broad areas, referred to as ‘verbal functional analysis’ and the ‘drill-down’, in which we believe the basic theory is showing increasingly direct application to therapy. The paper also comprises two case summaries in which verbal functional analysis and the drill-down featured strongly in case formulation and clinical focus. Case 1 involves an adult woman who presented with paranoia, had been diagnosed with psychosis, and had an extended history of familial and other abuse. Case 2\ud describes a teenager who had been placed in foster care, following parental neglect. For comparative purposes and to provide exemplars of similar functional-analytic processes, both case summaries are presented in a similar format. The article attempts to illustrate how therapeutic work can be connected to the basic theory and argues that it will be important in future work to further expand these connections with ongoing developments in RFT