Formulation is attracting an increasing amount of interest in the fields of psychology, psychiatry, psychotherapy and counselling. Drawing on psychological theory, it attempts to examine a client or family's problems in terms of how they arose and what may currently be holding these in place. It synthesises this information and explanatory ideas into 'working hypotheses', which are then used to suggest appropriate and effective ways of working to relieve the problems. It can also be described as the key way of relating theory to practice in clinical work. "Formulation in Psychology and Psychotherapy" places this growing interest in formulation in a clinical and historical context. It introduces the reader to the theory and practice of formulation through the discussion of two clients (one adult and one child focused problem), whose problems are formulated from the perspective of 5 different therapeutic traditions: systemic, psychodynamic, community, cognitive - behavioural and social constructionist/narrative. It looks at the growing trend for formulations that draw on two or more therapeutic models and includes two chapters dealing with integrative formulation.