Developing a Case Formulation and Using it to Guide CBT
Master Clinician Seminar 3 - Developing a Case Formulation and Using It to Guide CBT
Friday, November 18, 2022
11:00 AM – 1:00 PM EST
Location: Majestic/Music Box, 6th Floor
Earn 2 CE Credit
Keywords: Case Conceptualization / Formulation, Change Process / Mechanisms Recommended Readings: Persons, J. B., Beckner, V. L., & Tompkins, M. A. (2013). Testing case formulation hypotheses in psychotherapy: Two case examples. Cognitive and Behavioral Practice, 20, 399-409. Scott, K., & Lewis, C. C. (2015). Using measurement-based care to enhance any treatment. Cognitive and Behavioral Practice, 22(1), 49–59. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cbpra.2014.01.010 Gates, V., Hsiao, M., Zieve, G. G., Courry, R., & Persons, J. B. (2021). Relationship to CBT outcome and dropout of decision support tools of the written case formulation, list of treatment goals, and plot of symptom scores. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 142,103874. Persons, J. B., Brown, C., & Diamond, A. (2019). Case formulation-driven cognitive-behavioral therapy. In K. Dobson & D. Dozois (Eds.), Handbook of cognitive-behavioral therapies (4th edition, pp. 145-168). New York: Guilford.
Director Oakland CBT Center/UC Berkeley Department of Psychology Oakland, California
A case formulation is a hypothesis about the psychological mechanisms that maintain the patient’s symptoms, disorders, and problems. The formulation helps the therapist in many ways, including by helping the therapist select intervention targets and solve problems that arise in treatment. In this Master Clinician presentation, Dr. Persons teaches some of the basic skills of developing and using a case formulation in CBT. She presents didactic material and video examples of her work with a woman who sought treatment for insomnia and OCD. Dr. Persons teaches strategies for developing a transdiagnostic case formulation and using the formulation to guide intervention and solve problems, including this patient’s wish to prematurely terminate her treatment. Dr. Persons provides numerous handouts and recommends online tools that therapists can use to implement a case formulation-driven approach to treatment in their own practice.
Outline: I. Case formulation-driven CBT: A conceptual model II. Developing a case formulation A. Obtaining a comprehensive problem list B. Developing mechanism hypotheses III. Using the case formulation in treatment A. Using the formulation to target mechanisms instead of problems/disorders B. Using the formulation to guide decision-making C. Using the formulation to handle treatment failure
Learning Objectives:
At the end of the session, the learner will be able to:
List 2 elements of a case formulation.
List 3 common transdiagnostic mechanisms that maintain mood and anxiety and related symptoms in adults.
List 4 domains the clinician will want to assess in order to obtain a comprehensive problem list.
Offer 2 examples of clinical problems the case formulation can help the therapist solve.
Identify 2 assessment tools that are useful in developing a case formulation for an adult patient who seeks treatment for anxiety or depression or a related problem.
Long-term Goal: Identify 1 transdiagnostic mechanism for every depressed adult patient they treat.
Long-term Goal: Develop a collaborative list of idiographic treatment goals for every adult patient they treat.