Interpersonal Inventory (IPT)
A structured worksheet for the IPT interpersonal inventory: mapping the important people in the client's life, the quality of each relationship, what has changed, and how the relationships connect to the client's depression. Leads to choosing a focus area.
About this resource
The interpersonal inventory is the central assessment task of the initial phase of Interpersonal Psychotherapy. Over one to three sessions the clinician reviews each significant current relationship: its history, frequency of contact, what each person expects of the other, satisfying and unsatisfying aspects, recent changes, and what the client would like to be different. Together with a timeline of symptoms, the inventory allows the clinician and client to link the depression to one of the four IPT focus areas: grief, role dispute, role transition, or interpersonal deficits (sometimes called interpersonal sensitivity or isolation).
This worksheet supports that process. It uses a simple closeness circle to map who is in the client's life, then a repeated set of prompts for the four or five most important relationships, followed by a timeline of the depression alongside interpersonal events, and a short section in which client and clinician agree the focus area. It is designed to be completed in session, with the client taking parts home.
The professional version includes guidance on pacing the inventory across sessions, on clients who report few relationships (where the inventory itself becomes the intervention and points to the interpersonal deficits focus), on including relationships with deceased people where grief is suspected, and on how to phrase the formulation to the client in IPT terms.
How to use it
- Introduce the inventory after the initial assessment and the explanation of the IPT model: depression happens in an interpersonal context, and improving relationships and support improves mood.
- Complete the closeness circle first. Ask who belongs in the inner ring, who is further out, and whether anyone has moved recently. Note absences as well as presences.
- For each key relationship, work through the prompts conversationally. Be curious about expectations on both sides and about what the client has not said to the other person.
- Build the timeline together, placing symptom changes next to interpersonal events. Look for the event or relationship that best explains the onset or worsening of the episode.
- Agree the focus area and write the formulation in the client's language. Use it to open the middle phase of treatment with a relevant worksheet, such as Role Transitions (IPT).
References
- Klerman, G. L., Weissman, M. M., Rounsaville, B. J., & Chevron, E. S. (1984). Interpersonal Psychotherapy of Depression. Basic Books.
- Stuart, S., & Robertson, M. (2012). Interpersonal Psychotherapy: A Clinician's Guide (2nd ed.). Hodder Arnold.
- Weissman, M. M., Markowitz, J. C., & Klerman, G. L. (2018). The Guide to Interpersonal Psychotherapy (Updated and expanded ed.). Oxford University Press.
