Case Formulation and Treatment Planning in Therapy

A free training from Sentio University, presented by Alexandre Vaz.

Case formulation is the connective tissue between assessment and intervention. A good formulation lets the therapist explain, in plain language, what is maintaining the client's distress, which mechanisms a treatment plan should target, and what evidence in session would confirm or disconfirm the working hypothesis. A weak formulation usually shows up downstream as drift, where sessions get busy without getting traction. Most clinical training spends substantial time on assessment tools and on individual interventions but very little on the integration step that connects them. This webinar, led by Sentio Chief Academic Officer Alexandre Vaz, walks through a practical framework for case formulation and treatment planning that can be applied across therapeutic modalities, with concrete examples and a structure that supervisors can use directly with trainees.

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What you will learn

The webinar walks through a practical framework for case formulation and treatment planning:

  • What a clinical case formulation is and what it is meant to do
  • The core elements every formulation should account for, regardless of model
  • How to translate a formulation into a treatment plan with concrete targets
  • How to use session data to revise the formulation as the case unfolds
  • Common pitfalls in formulation and how to recognize them in your own work

Watch the webinar

How to do a Great Case Formulation and Treatment Planning, with Alexandre Vaz. Free to share.

This webinar is a Sentio crash-course built around a cross-cutting clinical skill rather than a specific therapy model. The framework is designed to be useful regardless of orientation and can be applied directly inside group supervision or individual case consultation.

How to use this with peers or supervisors

The webinar is most useful when paired with a working case. We recommend watching the recording with a peer or supervision group and pausing after each major framework element, the maintaining mechanisms, the targets, and the in-session evidence, to write out the corresponding piece for a case one of the participants is currently carrying. Once a draft formulation is on paper, a short deliberate practice exercise can be added. One person plays the therapist, one plays the client described in the formulation, and a third observes and offers structured feedback against a specific behavioral target, such as "deliver an intervention that targets one of the named maintaining mechanisms" or "summarize the formulation to the client in two sentences without jargon." Licensed clinicians who want to extend this approach can join Sentio's ongoing deliberate practice consultation group.

Going deeper: Deliberate Practice Supervision

A clear case formulation is necessary but not sufficient. Translating that formulation into reliable in-session behavior is a separate skill, and the method that develops it is deliberate practice. Doing deliberate practice supervision well is itself a skill that has to be rehearsed under feedback. A single weekend workshop tends not to give supervisors enough repetitions to develop the experiential muscle they need. Sentio runs an intensive year-long clinical supervisor training built around this principle. For the longer rationale for that format, see Why One Weekend Supervisor Trainings Fall Short.

About the author

Alexandre Vaz, PhD is the Chief Academic Officer of Sentio University and co-founder of the Deliberate Practice Institute. He is co-editor of The Essentials of Deliberate Practice book series (APA Books) and host of Psychotherapy Expert Talks. He is a licensed clinical psychologist in Portugal and has authored or co-edited over a dozen books on deliberate practice and psychotherapy training.

Related Sentio resources

Frequently asked questions

What does this webinar cover? The webinar walks through a practical framework for case formulation and treatment planning that can be applied across therapeutic modalities. It covers what a formulation is, the core elements every formulation should account for, how to translate a formulation into a concrete treatment plan, how to use ongoing session data to revise the formulation, and the most common pitfalls clinicians fall into when formulating cases.

Who is this training for? Licensed clinicians, supervisors, postdocs, predoctoral interns, and advanced trainees in any therapy modality. The framework is designed to be useful whether the clinician is practicing CBT, psychodynamic therapy, emotion-focused therapy, schema therapy, or an integrative approach. Supervisors and faculty will find the structure directly applicable to group supervision and to teaching trainees who are stuck delivering technique without an organizing conceptualization.

Do I need to be trained in a specific model to use this framework? No. The framework is intentionally transtheoretical. It asks the same core questions, about maintaining mechanisms, treatment targets, and in-session evidence, regardless of the model the therapist is working within. The specific content used to answer those questions will of course vary across orientations.

Is the webinar really free? Yes. The webinar is free to watch, free to share with peers and trainees, and free to use inside a supervision group. Sentio University is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit and releases its training resources openly.

Where can I go deeper after this? Clinicians who want to extend this work can join Sentio's DP Consultation Group, which meets regularly and is open to licensed clinicians worldwide. For modality-specific deliberate practice webinars that build on a strong formulation, see the full set of Sentio Innovation Lab spoke pages on Schema Therapy, DBT, EFCT, Motivational Interviewing, and Psychodynamic Psychotherapy.