Case formulation in emotion-focused therapy: Co-creating clinical maps for change.

Abstract

Emotion-focused therapy (EFT) views clinical disorders as, at base, emotional disorders. Case formulation in EFT represents an organizing framework and a map to help therapists specifically address these emotional problems. This book presents a detailed, concrete, step-by-step process for constructing an emotion-focused case formulation, ready for use with clients. EFT case formulation focuses on the client's narrative content (the stories they tell) as well as emotional processing (how the client feels). By attending to the interaction between these two things and paying particular attention to the painful emotion underlying the presenting problem, therapists can make moment-to-moment decisions about how to proceed in therapy. As a result, clients change maladaptive emotions and create more adaptive meaning of events and feelings. The chapters present each stage of case formulation in depth, followed by case examples that apply the case formulation method to a cross-section of clinical disorders, including depression, anxiety, trauma, and eating disorders.