Formulation is still regularly being forced onto people in the UK. There is still no option to say no to it, so please do tell - how is this different from forcing a diagnosis on to someone? If we are to have true choice & control, then you have to let us have the power back too.

Psychologists out there (and any other MH profs using Formulation) - you also need to recognise the huge power imbalance that runs alongside what you call “collaboration”. You need to consider that your patient’s are too overwhelmed by that power to properly collaborate with you.

Telling someone what Formulation is and telling them what’s going to happen, and asking if they want to collaborate, is *not* collaboration if you just go ahead and do it anyway. The option we have shouldn’t just be to be included during or after. We should be able to decline.

I also don’t like the way it’s used by some MH profs in “Team Formulation” where it almost feels as though it is done for the MH profs benefit, not the patient - for the profs to remind themselves *why* someone is distressed. Since when did you need a reminder to show compassion?

“There’s no “I” in Team,

Go look at my Formulation and you’ll soon know what I mean.

They say it’s routine,

To rewrite my history in a way I could not have foreseen.

It’s obscene”