The Empirical Evaluation of Family Therapy Training

This article describes the career of a small multi‐disciplinary group undergoing a training in family therapy. It is a personal tale attempting to give the ‘inside story’ on the trainee's struggle to become an effective family therapist. The group's experience, both corporately and individually, is described using the theoretical framework and research methodology of Personal Construct Psychology.

Section: Indiuidual Tale5mentioning

confidence: 99%

First steps in family therapy: a personal construct analysis

Kirby-Turner

1990

“…Given that there are these two distinctly different paths for entering family therapy training, the differences produced by these two approaches to acquiring therapeutic skills is an issue which needs to be addressed in the future. This is particularly the case as Tucker and Pinsof (1984) also produce some evidence that pre-experience of family interviewing had some effect on the outcome of in-therapy behaviour in that those with prior experience performed more ably than those who did not have such experience.…”

Section: Personnel Studiesmentioning

confidence: 95%

“…Bishop et al, 1984), to those that are multi-professional and presumably multicontextual (e.g. Tucker and Pinsof, 1984). The Bishop et al course, being confined to a single agency, was well able to set context objectives and the follow-up study on this course (Byles et al, 1983) found that the number of family interviews throughout the agency increased.…”

Section: E Streetmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…There have been no reported studies which deal with candidate personality characteristics that affect the course and outcome of training. Tucker and Pinsof (1984) report that professional candidates on a one-year part-time course obtained scores on a measure of self-actualization that. placed them close to the 'ideal self-actualization' group, and the authors suggest that the training programme may have attracted high self-actualizers.…”

Section: Personnel Studiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Family therapy training research: systems model and review

Street¹

1988

This paper proposes that a systems approach to the organization of family therapy training courses would be advantageous to trainers and researchers alike. A family therapy training programme development model is outlined. Using the stages of this model as a framework, the research into family therapy training is reviewed. The field still remains in its infancy and the quantity of research is relatively sparse. Developments have, however, been made and these auger well for the future. IntroductionRecent years have seen the rapid increase in the need for family therapy training and there has been a proliferation of training programmes of various types. Unfortunately, in common with psychotherapy training generally, these programmes have been constructed in pragmatic ways because the availability of empirical evidence to aid course building is very sparse. Research into the training of family therapy is therefore necessary in order to ensure that training courses and programmes are organized in the most efficient and effective manner. The training process is a very complex and multifarious activity, and the researcher needs to be able to select out and specify particular issues for particular study. This paper sets out a scheme which attempts to organize this field and hence offer course designers, trainers and researchers a model on which to base their decisions.A variant of the application of systems theory is an approach to general organizational issues and planning (Gagne, 1966). The objective of this approach is to reduce complex problems and relationships to simple outputs which can be used by the planner in arriving at the 'best' decision in terms of effectiveness and erkiency.

“…(a) There are several instruments for studying trainee performance which have 'some degree of validity and reliability' (for example, the Family Therapist Coding System (Tucker and Pinsof, 1984), the Family Rating Scale ) and a Training Evaluation Instrument (Breunlin et al, 1983). (b) There is evidence that various forms of training can produce an improvement in cognitive and intervention skills, although the latter is less certain because intervention skills have never been measured in actual therapy sessions (Zaken-Greenberg and Neimeyer, 1986).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Family Therapy Training Research – An Updating Review

Street

1997

a This paper provides an update of research into the training of family therapists. Issues from the overarching contexts of adult learning, professional training and current themes in the practice of family therapy are briefly outlined. The early organization of the training research field is seen as being programme orientated, lacking a multi-perspective approach (particularly that of the trainee) and not making use of qualitative research methods. The more recent empirical research is reviewed with these issues to the fore. The paper concludes by providing a new set of research questions, many of which can be addressed by qualitative methodologies and by calling for the research process to be an essential ingredient of training for family therapists aided by the development of the trainer/researcher role. IntroductionAny discussion of family therapy training should as a first step consider the general context of adult learning and professional education, for it is within this context that important issues and parameters will be found that have a direct bearing on the evaluation of training. Thus, of the models of professionalism that have been identified (Jones and Joss, 1995), the most applicable to the practice of family therapy would appear to be that of the reflective practitioner (Schon, 1983). The role that one is training for with this model is of facilitating the discovery of optimal courses of action and solutions to problems in an uncertain world. The model holds that there are no right single answers, there being a range of possible solutions and courses of actions which can vary from context to context. It is also recognized that the theories which inform such practice may be deficient or incomplete.The tasks of training reflexive practitioners have then to be © 1997 The Association for Family Therapy