What is meant by case conceptualization/formulation
Read the article below (attached) and discuss and answer the questions below.
Eells, T. D. (2007). History and current status of psychotherapy case formulation. In T. D. Eells (Ed.). Handbook
of
Psychotherapy Case Formulation. New York: Guilford Press.
1. Define what is meant by case conceptualization/formulation, why it is important to intervention, and how it is
related to assessment, diagnosis, interviewing, treatment planning, and treatment implementation.
a. For the last part of this question, try to think about how all these things “fit” together in caring for a client.
2. Eells (2007) equates case formulation with a hypothesis. How can you think of your clinical work like a
research project? How would you generate hypotheses? How would you collect data? What would you
measure? What outcomes would you expect? How could you use the results to inform your own clinical
practice? Is doing psychotherapy like a series of smaller research projects?
3. Eells (2007) discusses the conceptualization as consisting of both content and process elements. Describe
what she means by this making sure to differentiate between the prescriptive and descriptive components of a
case formulation/conceptualization?
4. Eells (2007) outlines 5 tensions in coming to a conceptualization. How might you overcome or deal with
these tensions in your own clinical work?
