ABSTRACT
The literature on formulation generally assumes that it is a process carried out in collaboration with individuals or families, and this is how it is described and taught in textbooks and on training programmes. However, recent years have seen a growing literature on the use of formulation at a team level. Team formulation is the process of facilitating a group or team of professionals to construct a shared understanding of a service user’s difficulties. Using formulation in teamwork is recommended by a number of clinical psychology professional documents such as the Health and Care Professions Council criteria (Health Professions Council, 2009), the Clinical Psychology Leadership Framework (Skinner and Toogood, 2010), the Accreditation through Partnership handbook criteria for training courses (British Psychological Society, 2010), and others. Team formulation is also discussed in the Division of Clinical Psychology (DCP) ‘Good practice guidelines on the use of psychological formulation’ (DCP, 2011).
