ABSTRACT
In this chapter we discuss how formulation might be understood within a tradition of narrative therapy (White and Epston, 1990). In common with approaches like systemic family therapy and community psychology, it does not see problems as lying within the person. However, it is sometimes misunderstood as a liberal humanistic approach seeking to empower people. Yet narrative therapy makes quite different assumptions, adopting a questioning approach to concepts like ‘strengths’ and does provide straightforwardly causal formulations. As a result we will begin by outlining the assumptions of this approach before turning to the issue of formulation and then describing how we might formulate our work with Jack and Janet.
