The Research‐Informed Clinician: A Guide to Training the Next‐Generation MFT

Abstract

The gap between clinical research and practice is a major challenge facing marriage and family therapy (MFT) training programs. Until now, the answer to bridge this gap has primarily been the Boulder Scientist-Practitioner Model. Although realistic for doctoral students, it may not be a good fit for MFT master's students who have primarily clinical career ambitions-which we believe is a legitimate and positive career choice. The following article articulates a "research informed" perspective as opposed to the scientist-practitioner framework as a research-training model for clinically oriented MFT master's programs. After articulating the similarities and differences between these two approaches, the authors outline 10 practical ideas to integrate research into programs that desire to remain clinical in focus, but also research informed.

The Present and Future of MFT Doctoral Education in Research‐Focused Universities

“…I believe MFT doctoral programs may achieve better research/practice integration by having students remain clinically active throughout several program years. Nonetheless, as with the Boulder Model there should be a strong emphasis on research methods and cutting‐edge data analysis and the expectation that students will become equipped to do original applied research (Karam & Sprenkle, in press).…”

“…I believe that our clinically oriented master’s programs exist primarily to train practitioners, a worthy objective in itself. However, I also think it is important that our master’s students who do not learn to do original research become what Eli Karam and I have called “research informed” (Karam & Sprenkle, in press). The research‐informed perspective focuses on integrating existing knowledge into clinical practice rather than equipping students to generate new knowledge.…”

“…Regarding substance abuse treatment, clinical “wisdom” has dictated that partners are sex segregated, that treatment is confrontational, and that treatment is most effective if led by former addicts. Faculty show, for example, how the research of O’Farrell and Fals‐Stewart (2006) provides powerful empirical data to challenge all of these assumptions that had been assumed to be the “truth.” Seven more suggestions for developing a research‐informed perspective are found in Karam and Sprenkle (in press).…”

Developmental Pedagogy in Marriage and Family Therapy Education: Preparing Students to Work Across Epistemologies

“…However, it is easy for family therapy students to focus on the variety of new learnings in their programs, such as new theory, social justice, politics of change, and innovative ways of understanding the human condition, and to forget that family therapy is about helping people (Wooley, ). As such, client outcome research is valuable to family therapy education and the research‐informed perspective because it gives learners firsthand insight into the change process of their clients and employs instruments that are both research and clinical tools (Karam & Sprenkle, ). By incorporating client outcome research in family therapy education, faculty can model how research, in addition to theory, can guide clinical decision making (Karam & Sprenkle, ).…”

Challenge and Urgency in Defining Doctoral Education in Marriage and Family Therapy: Valuing Complementary Models

“…The most frequent comment I hear from former doctoral students in professionally oriented programs is a wistful statement that they were hired for their research background, but are then given no time or support for their research. If faculty are to integrate more research into their teaching as suggested by Sprenkle (2009) in his essay and further elaborated in Karam and Sprenkle (2009), strategies need to be found to allow all faculty more time for scholarship.…”