Clinical formulation

Clinical formulation is like putting together a puzzle to understand why someone is having problems with their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors.

So imagine you have a big puzzle with lots of pieces. The puzzle might be all different colors and shapes and you don't really know what the picture is supposed to be.

But, if you take your time and start putting the pieces together, you might notice that some of the pieces fit really well together and make a bigger shape. Maybe you have some blue pieces that are ocean and some yellow pieces that are sand and you start to see that it's probably a picture of a beach.

Clinical formulation is like taking all the different pieces of information about a person and putting them together to create a more complete picture of what is going on with them.

These pieces of information might be things like:

- the person's history (what happened to them in the past)
- their current symptoms (what they are experiencing now)
- their relationships with others
- their beliefs and values
- their personality traits

Just like the puzzle, it can take time to figure out how all these different pieces fit together.

Once you have a better idea of what is going on with the person, you can use this understanding to make decisions about how to help them. This might involve therapy, medication, or other types of support.

Overall, clinical formulation is about trying to make sense of someone's experiences and figuring out how to help them feel better.