The Plan Formulation Method for Adolescents (PFM A): Personalizing Psychotherapy for Adolescents

The aim of this paper is to show how the Plan Formulation Method, an empirically validated and clinically useful assessment procedure, can be adapted to the therapy of adolescents. According to Control-Mastery Theory, patients come to therapy with an unconscious plan to achieve their goals, disconfirm their pathogenic beliefs, and master their traumas. PFM is a procedure aimed at formulating the unconscious plan of a patient with high levels of reliability and it articulates this plan in five components: the goals that the patient wants to achieve, the obstructions to these goals, the traumas which have given rise to these obstructions, the way the patient will try to overcome these obstructions during the therapy (tests), and the insights that the patient needs to achieve in order to get better. To apply this method to adolescent therapy, we added two components: the vicious relational circles between adolescents and their relevant others which support the patient’s problems and that the patient wants to break, and the experience the adolescent needs in order to get better. Each component will be explained with the help of a clinical case. The possible applications of the PFM to adolescents both in clinical and research contexts will be discussed.