Characteristics of Optimal Clinical Case Formulations: The Linchpin Concept

Clinical assessment would ideally culminate in the construction of an empirically grounded, comprehensive case formulation that would: (a) organize all of the key facts of a case around one causal/explanatory source; (b) frame this source in terms of factors amenable to direct intervention; and (c) lend itself to being shared with the client to his or her considerable benefit. This article elucidates these factors and their rationales, provides two case examples illustrating their use in clinical practice, and discusses relationships between the present approach and other contemporay approaches to case formulation.