ABSTRACT
This chapter describes developments in the application of the Shared Assessment Formulation and Education (SAFE) approach to working with people with negative symptoms of schizophrenia, paying particular attention to Team-Based Cognitive Therapy elements (TBCT). Negative symptoms of schizophrenia can be defined as blunted affect, poverty of speech, social withdrawal, avolition and anhedonia. The SAFE approach is an integrative Cognitive Behavioral framework for structuring team-based interventions targeted at the complex needs of service users who present with challenging and risk behaviors. Cognitive Therapy is also important to consider the role of reduced cognitive resources in the maintenance of negative symptoms; in particular the role of cognitive deficits in schizophrenia A key starting point is to understand that formulation needs to occur at multiple levels in order to guide the focus of the team, aid understanding of the person and provide tangible targets for specific problems which themselves act as barriers to recovery.
