Depression and other co-morbidities, such as alcoholism, frequently co-occur and make effective treatment more complex and challenging. There is a growing interest in the co-occurrence of substance use disorders and mood and anxiety disorders, but knowledge about effective behavioral treatment options is far from complete. Research supports the hypothesis that an integrated therapy such as CBASP, which possesses components of motivational, cognitive, behavioral therapy, as well as management of interpersonal reinforcements, to target co-occurring depression and alcoholism may be most effective for chronic depression and co-occurring disorders. CBASP has been shown to be effective in treating chronically depressed individuals and is a promising behavioral approach for use with chronically depressed patients who may report treatment resistance, traumatic developmental histories, manifest impoverished interpersonal relations, interactions, and coping skills, and demonstrate additional chronic under-functioning similar to alcohol dependent individuals with chronic depression. We review the application and research findings regarding the use of CBASP in chronically depressed individuals with co-occurring alcoholism. In addition, we explore the relationship between acquisition learning of the two primary skills in CBASP and treatment outcome. Learning acquisition is assessed in order to capture increases in felt emotional safety with the therapist, as well as perceived functionality on the part of the patient. We hypothesize that patients receiving CBASP will demonstrate an improvement in both symptoms of depression and their co-morbid disorders and that the amount of learning will be proportionally related to improvement in symptoms. We also explore patient characteristics that predict outcome.