Handbook Of Psychotherapy Case Formulation

Strong case formulations help clinicians organize complex and contradictory information about their clients. The serve as blueprints guiding treatment; provide a measure of change; facilitate empathy; predict therapeutic crises; and, increasingly help to justify the time and expense of therapy to third-party payers.; This book is designed to help clinicians at all levels of training master the fine points of case formulation within a range of therapeutic approaches. Each chapter provides a guide to implementing the method at hand in everyday clinical work, supported by an illustrative case example, therapeutic technique, review each method's historical and conceptual background and evaluate its suitability for different types of client.

Table of Contents:
Psychotherapy case formulation - history and current status, Eells; the traditional psychoanalytic approach to case formulation, Messer and Wolitzky; the core conflictual relationship theme - a basic case formulation method, Luborsky; cyclical maladaptive patterns - case formulation in time-limited dynamic psychotherapy, Levenson and Strupp; the plan formulation method, Curtis and Silberschatz; the idiographic conflict formulation method, Perry; configurational analysis - states of mind, person schemas and the control of ideas and affect, Horowitz and Eells; case formulation in interpersonal psychotherapy of depression, Markowitz et al; interpersonal case formulation - describing and explaining interpersonal patterns using the structural analysis of social behaviour, Henry; plan analysis, Caspar; case formulation in cognitive analytic therapy, Ryle and Bennett; cognitive behavioural case formulation, Persons and Tompkins; case formulation in dialectical behaviour therapy for borderline personality disorder, Koerner and Linehan; case formulation in behaviour therapy - problem-solving and functional analytic strategies, Nezu et al.

About the Author :
Tracy D. Eells, PhD, University of Louisville.

Review :
"Recognizing that therapeutic intervention cannot be effective without a carefully thought-out case formulation, this volume provides a comprehensive and invaluable contribution for the practicing clinician. The major theoretical orientations are represented, offering clear and detailed guidelines for formulating cases, together with richly illustrated clinical examples. As many of these case formulation guidelines are grounded in psychotherapy process research, this volume has the notable appeal of providing closer links between research and practice." --Marvin G. Goldfried, PhD, Professor of Psychology, State University of New York at Stony Brook "Skillful case formulation has always been one of the secret ingredients separating the great psychotherapists from the rest of us. Fortunately for us, the experts are now sharing their secrets in this wonderful book. This is especially timely because, in our increasingly managed care world, psychotherapy is likely to be approved only when it is supported by a precise and compelling formulation." --Allen J. Frances, MD, Chairman, Department of Psychiatry, Duke University Medical Center "The case formulation is the very heart of psychotherapy--the bridge between theory and practice, the conceptual model that guides the therapist's efforts. In spite of this, little has been written about the process of constructing a formulation; it is almost as though this were regarded as an unteachable skill. In this important volume Tracy Eels has made a major step toward correcting this oversight. The leading psychotherapy researchers in the world describe their approaches to formulation and to therapy, and the relationship between the two in their clinical work. Their approaches span psychoanalysis, interpersonal, cognitive, behavioral and experiential therapies and are richly illustrated with clinical examples. Eels has created a Rosetta Stone for contemporary psychotherapies, allowing us to trace the relationships among their core concepts and identify their commonalities. This book will inform and influence all psychotherapists in their clinical work." --Robert Michels, MD, Walsh McDermott University Professor of Medicine, University Professor of Psychiatry, Cornell University Medical College "Tracy Eells has provided valuable data to mental health practitioners and researchers....the contents speak to the concerns of ordinary therapists, not just to a narrow academic audience....Readers can learn from the included writers not just about case formulation but about the interrelationships between dominant theories of behavior, the historical connections among different approaches, and the specific clinical challenges that have spurred theoretical and technical ingenuity." -- Psychotherapy Research "The strength of this work as a clinical tool is the strict organization of each chapter....This consistent framework allows for intra-case comparisons and permits the clinician to select an approach consistent with personal working styles and approaches to treatment....chapter authors do a fine job describing the structure of each case formulation technique and how the therapist approaches treatment with the method described. The writing style is smooth and minimally technical. Chapters are well referenced so that the reader may pursue further research. Recommended for libraries serving clinical and graduate level psychology populations." -- E-Streams "Tracy Eells has provided valuable data to mental health practitioners and researchers....the contents speak to the concerns of ordinary therapists, not just to a narrow academic audience....Readers can learn from the included writers not just about case formulation but about the interrelationships between dominant theories of behavior, the historical connections among different approaches, and the specific clinical challenges that have spurred theoretical and technical ingenuity." --"Psychotherapy Research" "The strength of this work as a clinical tool is the strict organization of each chapter....This consistent framework allows for intra-case comparisons and permits the clinician to select an approach consistent with personal working styles and approaches to treatment....chapter authors do a fine job describing the structure of each case formulation technique and how the therapist approaches treatment with the method described. The writing style is smooth and minimally technical. Chapters are well referenced so that the reader may pursue further research. Recommended for libraries serving clinical and graduate level psychology populations." --"E-Streams"