One Case, Three Levels

Formulating a case means explaining one presentation biologically, psychologically, and socioculturally, then building a treatment plan that addresses all three.

One case — a thirty-year-old with a first episode of major depression after a job loss — formulated completely. The biological level: family history, sleep disruption, and what medication would and would not address. The psychological level: the interpretive pattern maintaining the episode and the behavioral withdrawal reinforcing it. The sociocultural level: isolation, cost, and access. The plan built from all three, with the alliance treated as a condition of it working. Ends by naming which level the plan cannot reach and what that means for the outcome.