Citation

Sexton T, Gordon KC, Gurman AS, Lebow J, Holtzworth-Munroe A, Johnson S. Fam. Process 2011; 50(3): 377-392.

Affiliation

Center for Adolescent and Family Studies, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN Department of Psychology, University of Tennessee The Family Institute at Northwestern University and Clinical Psychology Training Program, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL; Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, WI The Family Institute at Northwestern University, Evanston, IL Department of Psychology, Indiana University Department of Clinical Psychology, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2011, Family Process Institute, Publisher John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/j.1545-5300.2011.01363.x

PMID

21884076

Abstract

Guidelines for Evidence-Based Treatments in Family Therapy are intended to help guide clinicians, researchers, and policy makers in identifying specific clinical interventions and treatment programs for couples and families that have scientifically based evidence to support their efficacy. In contrast to criteria, which simply identify treatments that "work" and have been employed in the evaluation of other psychotherapies, these guidelines propose a three-tiered levels-of-evidence-based model that moves from "evidence-informed," to "evidence-based," to "evidence-based and ready for dissemination and transportation within diverse community settings." Each level reflects an interaction between the specificity of the intervention, the strength and breadth of the outcomes, and the quality of the studies that form the evidence. These guidelines uniquely promote a clinically based "matrix" approach in which the empirical support is evaluated according to various dimensions including strength of the outcomes, the applicability across cultural contexts, and demonstration of specific change mechanisms. The guidelines are offered not only as a basis for understanding the evidence for diverse clinical approaches in couple and family therapy within the systemic tradition of the field, but also as an alternative aspirational model for evaluating all psychotherapies.

Language: en