ABSTRACT
The therapist's understanding of his or her client's difficulties, and the corresponding therapeutic strategies employed to transform those difficulties, is captured in the therapist's case conceptualization. Case conceptualization is an important part of emotion-focused therapy (EFT). Emotional avoidance was closely linked to, and on occasions fueled by, behavioral avoidance. The therapist works experientially with general anxiety disorder (GAD) characteristics such as worry and avoidance. It is quite typical to find clients who meet criteria for GAD, who also meet criteria for one of the Cluster C personality disorders. This chapter outlines how, over time, EFT has adopted the practice of developing case conceptualizations (or formulations) as a means of guiding the therapist through the work of therapy. A key text is used to illustrate how case formulation of experiential therapy is used in the pursuit of elaborating an understanding of the client's presenting difficulty. A case study is presented and then used to take the reader through conceptualization.
