WRITING A CASE CONCEPTUALIZATION - Antioch …
WRITING A CASE CONCEPTUALIZATION
ANTIOCH UNIVERSITY VIRTIUAL WRITING CENTER
Case conceptualizations are not only a useful tool to learn new psychotherapeutic theories, they are critical in the work of psychologists and therapists. They are meant to answer the question, Given this theory, how do I understand the distress of the patient/client and how did I help? This resource is meant to help you write a case conceptualization by identifying the core elements of the paper and providing some questions to help guide your writing process.
If your professor has provided a template, use that and consider this a supplement. Your assignment might not need every element, but the more you include, the more thorough your conceptualization will be.
Core Elements
Major points to address
History
Central assumptions Key terms and constructs Definitions of psychopathology and health Mechanism of change Goal of psychotherapy
Overview of theory Things you might include
Who developed it? What population/problem was it created to
address? What are the underlying philosophies? What self-evident propositions/ideas are at the
foundation of the theory? What are the "technical terms" and how can you
explain them to a layperson? How does this theory describe a person's
distress? How does it describe the epitome of health? How does a person move from psychopathology
to health? What does a therapist hope to accomplish with
their work?
Role of therapist How does the therapist facilitate the patient's
movement toward psychological health?
ANTIOCH UNIVERSITY VIRTIUAL WRITING CENTER
Case formulation
Major points to
Things you might include
address
Patient history The theory is influential here. For example, if you
have chosen a psychodynamic theory, the
developmental history will include attachment
style.
Identifying characteristics (e.g., gender, race, SES,
etc.)
Referral question, concerns, goals
Observations and mental status
History of the problem
Developmental history
Historical and current family and social
functioning
Relevant medical history
Strengths and resources
Case
This is where your critical thinking skills come in.
conceptualization Given the theory you just described, how do you as
the therapist understand the patient's distress?
This is where you bring in the central assumptions,
key terms/constructs, definitions of
psychopathology and health you explained above
and apply them directly to the patient's case.
Implemented
Given the theory's mechanism of change, goal of
interventions
psychotherapy, and therapist role, what occurred
during the sessions that helped the patient move
toward psychological health? Theories often have
specific interventions associated with them. These
interventions have been developed to harness the
theory's mechanism of change and role of the
therapist to achieve the psychotherapeutic goals.
Things to Consider While Writing
ANTIOCH UNIVERSITY VIRTIUAL WRITING CENTER
Awareness of audience
Integration of sources
Introduction
Content development
What knowledge will your audience have before reading your case conceptualization? Can you rattle off key terms because it is
understood that your audience will be familiar with the jargon or will you need to define and explain everything? In other words, what is "common knowledge?" Will you be describing the theory from the texts written by the original theorists or will you extract from a more current synthesis of the theory and/or other secondary sources? What is "common knowledge" for your audience? What requires citations? How will you orient your reader to the contents of the paper? An abstract? An introductory paragraph? Multi-level headers? Some combination of these? The purpose of the paper is to apply the theory to the case. Are you using the language (e.g., key terms and constructs) of the theory? Does your case conceptualization describe the patient's distress in terms of the theory's definition of psychopathology? Do your interventions harness the theory's mechanism of change? During the therapy, did you accurately fulfill the role of therapist? If not, have you provided insight as to why not?
By Teresa Hoffman, PsyD. Candidate
Peer Writing Consultant
Antioch Virtual Writing Center
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