The Case Formulation Approach to Cognitive-Behavior Therapy

Jacqueline B. Persons, PhD, is Director of the San Francisco Bay Area Center for Cognitive Therapy and Clinical Professor in the Department of Psychology at the University of California, Berkeley. She is a clinician, teacher, researcher, writer, and scientist-practitioner. She maintains an active clinical practice, providing cognitive-behavior therapy for mood and anxiety disorders and related problems, and teaches and provides clinical supervision to students and professionals in many settings. Dr. Persons conducts research on the mechanisms underpinning symptoms of depression and anxiety and on the process and outcome of cognitive-behavior therapy, especially as it is implemented in routine clinical practice. Her first book, Cognitive Therapy in Practice: A Case Formulation Approach, published by W. W. Norton in 1989, is widely considered a classic. She is past president of the Association for Advancement of Behavior Therapy (now the Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies) and of the Society for a Science of Clinical Psychology, a section of the Society of Clinical Psychology of the American Psychological Association.

1. What Is the Case Formulation Approach to Cognitive-Behavior Therapy?

2. Cognitive Theories and Their Clinical Implications

3. Learning Theories and Their Clinical Implications

4. Emotion Theories and Their Clinical Implications

5. Beginning the Therapeutic Relationship and Obtaining a Problem List and Diagnosis

6. Developing an Initial Case Formulation and Setting Treatment Goals

7. Using the Formulation to Develop a Treatment Plan and Obtain the Patient’s Consent to It

8. The Therapeutic Relationship

9. Monitoring Progress

10. Decision Making in the Therapy Session

11. Handling Nonadherence and Treatment Failure

12. Decision Making over the Course of Therapy