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Integrative Systemic Therapy (IST) is a metatheoretical perspective for the conduct of individual, couple, and family therapy. Following a brief description of IST, this article presents developments in IST and their implication for psychotherapy integration. The nature of problem solving in IST is clarified, and the relationship between IST's essential problem‐solving tasks and its core decision‐making process is defined. Particular attention is paid to two dimensions of IST that have given it its name: integration and systems theory. The advantages of a therapy that is client system‐centered and not model‐driven are discussed, and a justification for "good enough" execution of interventions abstracted from specific models is provided. A procedure for balancing pragmatic demands of therapy with a commitment to account, as needed, for broader or deeper systemic issues is presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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In this article, we examine the field of family therapy by drawing a distinction between two forms of practice: Whole Family Therapy ( WFT), defined as treating the whole family, and Relational Family Therapy ( RFT), defined as working with a subsystem of the family or an individual while retaining a systemic lens. Our thesis is that the practice of WFT has been in decline for some time and steps must be taken to keep it from becoming a defunct practice. We consider the trajectory of WFT and RFT throughout the development of family therapy through reference to the people, the literature, training, and practice patterns associated with family therapy. We remind the reader of the many benefits of WFT and suggest that today WFT is likely to be practiced in conjunction with RFT and individual therapy. Since training of family therapists today is largely located in degree-granting programs, we identify constraints to including WFT in such programs. We conclude by offering suggestions that can enhance a program's ability to train students in WFT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is the second of 2 articles presenting Integrative Problem Centered Metaframeworks (IPCM) Therapy, a multisystemic, integrative, empirically informed, and common factor perspective for family, couple, and individual psychotherapy. The first article presented IPCM's foundation concepts and Blueprint for therapy, focusing on the first Blueprint component-Hypothesizing or assessment. This article, focusing on intervention, presents the other 3 Blueprint components-Planning, Conversing, and Feedback. Articulated through the Blueprint, intervention is a clinical experimental process in which therapists formulate hypotheses about the set of constraints (the Web) within a client system that prevents problem resolution, develop a therapeutic Plan based on those hypotheses, implement the Plan through a coconstructed dialogue with the clients, and then evaluate the results. If the intervention is not successful, the results become feedback to modify the Web, revise the Plan, and intervene again. Guided by the therapeutic alliance, this process repeats until the presenting problems resolve. IPCM Planning sequentially integrates the major empirically and yet-to-be empirically validated therapies and organizes their key strategies and techniques as common factors. Conversing and Feedback employ empirical STIC® (Systemic Therapy Inventory of Change) data collaboratively with clients to formulate hypotheses and evaluate interventions. This article emphasizes the art and science of IPCM practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the last 20 years psychotherapy and family therapy have been inundated with a plethora of empirically validated treatments for particular disorders. That trend will increase. Psychotherapists will increasingly be exhorted and ultimately required to integrate empirical data and multicultural competence into their practice. Additionally, individual psychotherapy's default dominance of psychotherapeutic discourse needs to integrate and come to theoretical and clinical terms with the implications of the growing body of research demonstrating the validity and value of a multisystemic perspective. This article (and its companion article) presents a comprehensive, integrative, multisystemic, and empirically informed psychotherapeutic perspective to help therapists and psychotherapy trainers successfully address these challenges-Integrative Problem Centered Metaframeworks (IPCM) Therapy. This first article presents and illustrates IPCM's theoretical foundation, core concepts, and 'case formulating' components. It delineates a Blueprint for the practice and teaching of 21st century psychotherapists who can meld science and art into best practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper reports on a school-based intervention in which a family therapist, serving as a consultant to a high school, worked with that school to reduce the level of school-based violence. The primary intervention reported in this paper is a conflict skills training programme called ‘Making the Smart Choice’. While designed for the families of students suspended for physical violence, this intervention also impacts upon the school's disciplinary system and the climate of the school itself. The context or responses to school-based violence, the strategy to gain access to the school, the politics of developing such a programme, the programme itself and the infrastructure needed to maintain it are described. For four years, suspensions for school-based violence were halved compared to the four years prior to the start of the programme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Grounded in the cybernetic concept of negative explanation, the theory of constraints examines how human systems are kept from solving problems. To identify constraints, therapists must know where to look for them and what to look for The theory proposes that constraints exist among the levels of a biopsychosocial system, which include biology, person, relationship, family, community, and society. The six metaframeworks of organization, sequences, mind, development, gender, and culture assist constraint identification. Combining the levels and metaframeworks creates a web of constraints, the complexity of which determines how difficult it will be to solve a given problem. The theory of constraint offers an integrative and pragmatic approach to therapy while simultaneously honoring the complexity of human systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses various reports published within the issue including one by Douglas H. Sprenkle and Gary Bischof on contemporary family therapy in the U.S and another one by William J. Doherty, Susan H. McDaniel and Jeri Hepworth on the emerging specialty of medical family therapy.

This paper describes the development of the training programme offered at the Family Institute in Cardiff and presents the results of a retrospective survey reflecting the ‘consumers’ views of the programme. Questionnaires were sent to all students who had trained at the Institute between 1972 and 1977, to elicit information about their views of the placement, as well as their post-qualifying experience. activities and interest in family therapy. A briefer preliminary report has been published earlier (Dowling and Seligman, 1980). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is a critical review of the literature pertaining to the syndrome of failure-to-thrive with no organic etiology (FTNOE). Following a review of definitions, incidence, criteria for diagnosis, clinical forms, signs and symptoms, five perspectives on the etiology of FTNOE are critiqued. They include: environmental deprivation, maternal deprivation, sensory deprivation, psychosomatic and nutritional. The role of the family with respect to FTNOE is examined next. The main family loci discussed are the functioning of each parent, the relationship between them, mother-child interaction, and characteristics of the entire family. Where possible, the incidence of key family variables is determined across studies and presented. Treatment approaches are reviewed with particular emphasis on attempts to ameliorate the depriving environment. Follow-up studies conducted in the hospital and long term follow-up studies are examined; the latter with particular respect to the effects of FTNOE on cognitive development. Finally, the methodological problems inherent in most of the FTNOE research are discussed and suggestions made for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on family therapy training has produced very little data regarding the kinds of trainees that do best in family therapy training programs. This study attempts to provide some rough and preliminary data on that issue. One hundred and seventy trainees, drawn from seven different structural/strategic training experiences, were evaluated as to how much they learned by taking the Family Therapy Assessment Exercise pre- and posttraining. Their performance was correlated using a hierarchical regression analysis with a number of trainee variables such as amount of conjugal family experience, amount of experience doing family or individual therapy, or prior knowledge of family therapy. The results indicate that, as predicted, conjugal family experience was positively related, and prior knowledge was negatively related to performance. Prior experience doing individual therapy was also positively related to performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]