Reciprocal CBT Formulation

A CBT formulation helps therapists and clients to understand a client’s presenting problems within the framework of the cognitive behavioral model. Persons (2008) describes how formulations are described at three levels: case, disorder or problem, and symptom. These levels can be embedded in one another: for example, a case-level formulation may contain symptom-level cycles. Therapists use a wide variety of formulation tools, from cross-sectional models, which capture the effect of the environment on an individual’s thoughts, feelings, body, and behavior at a moment in time, to longitudinal models, which also seek to understand the underlying factors that predispose a client to the problems they are experiencing.

CBT theory can be applied to interpersonal problems. For example, Teichman’s reciprocal model of depression describes the constant process by which the behaviour of others can influence one’s internal state (Teichman & Teichman, 1990; Teichman, 1992). Safran and Segal’s cognitive interpersonal model (1996) describes how

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• Persons, J. B. (2008). The case formulation approach to cognitive-behavior therapy (guides to individualized evidence-based treatment). New York: Guilford.
• Safran, J., & Segal, Z. V. (1996). Interpersonal process in cognitive therapy. Jason Aronson, Incorporated.
• Teichman, Y. (1992). Family treatment with an acting-out adolescent. In A. Freeman & F. M. Datillio (Eds.) Comprehensive casebook of cognitive therapy. Springer.