ABSTRACT
Comprehend, Cope and Connect (CCC) initially developed in response to pressures on NHS mental health services, both outpatient and inpatient. The CCC formulation offers an alternative way into the situation, and one that both normalizes it and puts the individual firmly in charge of the solution. The process starts with acknowledging and discussing the intolerable internal state at the root of the problem; representing it with an untidy and misshapen outline in the centre of the page (hence 'the spikey diagram' as it is generally known); tracing the origins of the unbearable feeling in the past – naming without exploring this; naming its source in recent trigger events, and exploring the maintaining cycles and the way in which they arise naturally as a way of coping with the feeling. Once the formulation diagram is in place, the task of identifying behavioural goals needed to break the cycles and the skills and support needed to accomplish these goals becomes straightforward.
