Ten Research Questions for Family Therapy

Carr, Alan

doi:10.1375/anft.31.2.119

Cited by 15 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 48 publications

(45 reference statements)

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“…We need to be aware that practice‐based or practice‐near research might be messy, and might highlight both welcome and unwelcome aspects of our professional lives (Cooper, ). In order to develop as professionals, we need to understand whether what we do ‘works’ and indeed how what we do works (Carr, ). The mutual dyad of (a) reflection on one's own practice, and (b) the use of supervision and professional development, helps.…”

Section: Current Conclusionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The ethics of researching one's own practice

Helps

2017

Journal of Family Therapy

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Practice-based research is increasingly utilized as a postmodern, qualitative research method. It can help systemic practitioners understand, develop and communicate about their everyday practice to others. In this article I review some of the literature on practitioner research and focus on the challenges of researching one's own practice. Using illustrative examples from transcripts and field notes gathered during my research on how I begin conversations with families who seek a diagnostic assessment for an autism spectrum condition for their child, I explore the ethics involved in the twofold task of providing a clinical service and conducting systematic research. I argue that a dynamic relational ethics of care can be employed to navigate the challenges of adopting a dual research and clinical focus

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Section: Current Conclusionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The ethics of researching one's own practice

Helps

2017

Journal of Family Therapy

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“…To achieve this efficacy, studies often have restrictions on the client sample (i.e., highly selected, homogenous, well‐defined participants), control of the practitioner skill set through standardised treatment protocols (e.g., essential intervention components versus proscribed intervention components), specified treatment outcomes (e.g., measured using detailed outcome assessments), and elimination of concurrent treatments (Fritz & Cleland, ; Hébert et al., ). Due to the methodological requirements of efficacy studies, the evidence for couple therapy has been gathered largely by specialist clinics attached to universities and research centres and may not generalise to routine practice settings (Carr, ).…”

Section: Reasons For Different Outcomes In Efficacy and Effectivenessmentioning

confidence: 99%

Couple Counselling Outcomes in an Australian Not for Profit: Evidence for the Effectiveness of Couple Counselling Conducted Within Routine Practice

Petch¹,

Lee²,

Huntingdon³

et al. 2014

Aust N Z J Fam Ther

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Over 30 randomised controlled trials have shown the efficacy of couple therapy under controlled conditions. However only four studies explore effectiveness of couple therapy as commonly practised in the community (i.e., routine practice). These studies suggest effectiveness is about half that reported in randomised controlled trials. Further, there are no published couple therapy effectiveness data currently from Australia or New Zealand. This is troubling because (1) couple distress has negative effects on individual adults, couples, and families; (2) funders increasingly want proof of return on financial investment; and (3) clients want hope that their emotional investment in therapy is worthwhile. The first aim of this paper is to report the outcomes of a milestone multi-centre study of over 1,500 Relationships Australia clients attending couple counselling. It outlines a simple, intuitive method for assessing effectiveness of couple counselling in routine practice that may motivate others to conduct effectiveness studies. The study used a cross-sectional design and assessed current couple satisfaction and retrospective recall of couple satisfaction before attending counselling. Results revealed a moderate effect size improvement in relationship satisfaction. The results support previous published studies of couple therapy effectiveness in routine practice. The second aim of the paper is to increase interest in others doing similar research by addressing key barriers to the implementation of effectiveness studies within routine practice. These barriers include administrative burden, integration across services, and conceptual buy-in by practitioners. The use of the retrospective measure of 'pre counselling' couple satisfaction measure overcomes these barriers in part. The paper concludes with a discussion of design limitations and suggestions for counselling agencies seeking to conduct their own effectiveness studies.

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“…In 2010 there was a marked awareness of the importance of research and evidence‐based practice for the growth family therapy. For example, in a special issue of the Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy (Volume 31, Number 2) on research there were overview articles on evidence‐based approaches such as MDFT (Liddle, ), MST (Henggeler and Schaeffer, ) and the Maudsley model for treating adolescent eating disorders (LeGrange, ) as well as more general articles on future directions for family therapy research (such as Carr, ). There was a decade review of research on family life in the Journal of Marriage and the Family (Volume 72, Number 3).…”

Section: Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%