McMaster Family Therapy

Abstract

The McMaster Approach is a way of thinking about families, family life, and the ways that families organize themselves to manage daily living. It evolved from its origins at McGill and McMaster Universities in Canada in the 1960s and 1970s under the leadership of Nathan Epstein, to Brown University in the USA where the Family Research Program continues to refine, study, and teach it under the leadership of Gabor Keitner. The McMaster Approach is made up of three interrelated parts: clinical application, research, and training. Treatment evaluates family functioning across six dimensions of family life (the McMaster Model of Family Functioning, MMFF), provides a protocol for assessing how families identify and deal with problems, offers an approach to conducting therapy when problems in family functioning are apparent (The Problem Centered Systems Therapy of the Family, PCSTF), and provides a set of guidelines for managing the treatment process (McMaster Tenets). Research focuses on a set of validated instruments that collect empirical and clinical data on how family members (Family Assessment Device,