Process research
These studies research therapeutic change processes, addressing questions of 'how therapy works', and can be considered to produce 'practice-based evidence'.
The studies include methods which analyse in-session therapy discourse, analysing what is changing and how it is changing, and methods which involve asking therapists and clients about their experience of therapy, significant moments and the process of change.
Please also refer to studies listed under Methodologies. Qualitative.
Researching Process
Elliott, R. (2012) Qualitative Methods for Studying Psychotherapy Change Processes. In: A. Thompson & D. Harper (Eds.) Qualitative research methods in mental health & psychotherapy: An introduction for students & practitioners (pp. 69-81). Chichester, UK: Wiley-Blackwells.
Escudero, Valentin and Friedlander, Myrna L., (2017) Therapeutic Alliances with Families: Empowering Clients in Challenging Cases. Cham (Switzerland): Springer International Publishing AG, 2017, 229 pp., ISBN 978‐3‐319‐59368‐5
Franklin, C., Zhang, A., Froerer, A., & Johnson, S. (2016) Solution Focused Brief Therapy: A systematic review and meta‐summary of process research. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 43(1): 16-30.
Friedlander, M.L., Heatherington, L., & Escudero, V. (2014). Research based change mechanisms: Advances in process research. In T. L. Sexton & J. Lebow (Eds.), Handbook of Family Therapy. (4th ed.) New York: Routledge.
Grácio, J., Gonçalves-Pereira, M. and Leff, J. (2016) What do we know about family interventions for psychosis at the process level? A systematic review. Family Process, 55: 79–90. doi: 10.1111/famp.12155
Helps, S. (2017) The ethics of researching one's own practice. Journal of Family Therapy. 39. 3: 348-365
van Hennick, R. & Hillewaere, B. (2017) Practice based evidence based practice. Navigating based on coordinated improvisation, collaborative learning and multi methods research in feedback informed systemic therapy. Journal of Family Therapy. 39. 3: 288-309
Sundet,
R. (2012). Postmodern-oriented
practices and patient-focused research: possibilities and hazards.
Australian and New
Zealand Journal of Family Therapy, 33,
pp 299-308 doi:10.1017/aft.2012.38
Tseliou, E., Burck, C., Forbat, L. Strong, T. & O'Reilly, M. (2020) The discursive performance of change process in systemic and constructionist therapies: A systematic meta-synthesis review of in-session therapy discourse. Family Process.
Tseliou, E., Burck, C., Forbat, L., Strong, T. and O’Reilly, M. (2020), How is Systemic and Constructionist Therapy Change Process Narrated in Retrospective Accounts of Therapy? A Systematic Meta‐synthesis Review. Family Process doi:10.1111/famp.12562
Analysis of In-Session Therapy Discourse
Amoss, Sarah (2014) The negotiation of blame in family therapy with families affected by psychosis. DSysPsych thesis, Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust. Full text available
Avdi. E. (2015) Discourses of development in the consulting room: Analysing family therapy with children. Feminism and Psychology. 25(3), pp. 363-380.
Avdi,
E. (2012) Exploring
the contribution of subject positioning to studying therapy as a
dialogical enterprise.
International
Journal for Dialogical Science.
6(1), pp. 61-79.
Balestra, F. (2017) Analysing the relational components of systemic family therapy through the lenses of self positions and therapeutic alliance: an exploratory study. Journal of Family Therapy. 39. 3: 310-328
Bohme, H. (2017) New paradigms of parenthood: researching practice in a fertility clinic incarnating new forms of family. Journal of Family Therapy. 39. 3: 402-414.
Borsca, M & Rober, P. (2016) Research Perspectives in Couple Therapy. Discursive Qualitative Methods. Springer International.
Chenail, R. J., DeVincentis, M., Kiviat, H. E., & Somers, C. (2012). A systematic narrative review of discursive therapies research: Considering the value of circumstantial evidence. In A. Lock & T. Strong (Eds.), Discursive perspectives in therapeutic practice (pp. 224-244). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.
D'Arrigo-Patrick, J., Hoff, C., Knudson-Martin, C. and Tuttle, A. (2016), Navigating critical theory and postmodernism: Social justice and therapist power in family therapy. Family Process. doi:10.1111/famp.12236.
Eira Nunes, C., Pascual‐Leone, A., de Roten, Y., Favez, N. and Darwiche, J. (2020). Resolving Coparenting Dissatisfaction In Couples: A Preliminary Task Analysis Study. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 00, 1‐ 15. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/jmft.12450
Escudero, V., Boogmans, E. & Loots, G. (2012) Alliance rupture and repair in conjoint family therapy: An exploratory study. Psychotherapy, 49(1), pp. 26–37.
Gale,
J. (2010) Discursive
Analysis:
A research approach for studying the moment-to-moment construction of meaning in systemic practice.
Human Systems,
21(2), pp. 7-37.
Guregård, S & Seikkula, J. (2014) Establishing therapeutic dialogue with refugee families. Contemporary Family Therapy. 36: 1.
Hellemans, S. et al (2011) Therapeutic processes in multi-family groups for
major depression: Results of an interpretative phenomenological
study. Journal of Affective Disorders 134(1-3) 226-34
Higham, J.E., Friedlander, M.L., Escudero, V. and Diamond, G. (2011) Engaging reluctant adolescents in family therapy: An exploratory study of in-session processes of change, Journal of Family Therapy, 34(1), pp. 24–52. doi: 10.1111/j.1467-6427.2011.00571.x.
Keeney,
H., Keeney, B., & Chenail, R. J.(2012). Recursive
frame analysis: A practitioner’s tool for mapping therapeutic
conversation. The
Qualitative Report,
17, pp. 1-15.
Knudson‐Martin, C., Kim, L., Gibbs, E. and Harmon, R. (2021), Sociocultural Attunement to Vulnerability in Couple Therapy: Fulcrum for Changing Power Processes in Heterosexual Relationships. Fam. Proc.. https://doi.org/10.1111/famp.12635
Mandin, P. (2017) Creating a space to think in adversarial contexts: researching network meetings in statutuory childcare interventions. Journal of Family Therapy. 39. 3:329-347.
Oka, M., & Whiting, J. (2013). Bridging the clinician/researcher gap with systemic research: The case for process research, dyadic, and sequential analysis. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 39(1): 17-27.
Ong, B., Barnes, S. and Buus, N. (2020). Eliciting Stance and Mitigating Therapist Authority in Open Dialogue Meetings. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 00, 1‐ 16. doi: https://doi.org/10.1111/jmft.12454
van Parijs, H., Provoost, V., de Sutter, P., Pennings, G. & Buysse, A. (2017) Multi family members interview studies: a focus on data analysis. Journal of Family Therapy. 39. 3: 386-401.
Rapsey, E.H.S., Burbach, F.R. & Reibstein, J. (2015) Exploring the process of family interventions for psychosis in relation to attachment, attributions and problem-maintaining cycles: An IPA study. Journal of Family Therapy 37(4). DOI:10.1111/1467-6427.12085
Sequeira,
J. & Alarcão, M. (2013). Assessment system of narrative change.
Journal of Systemic
Therapies, 32(4),
pp. 33-51.
Singh, R. (2008) The process of family talk across culture. Tavistock Systemic Psychotherapy Doctorate Thesis.
Sundet, R. et al (2016) Collaboration: Suggested Understandings. Australian and New Zealand Journal of Family Therapy, 37, pp. 93–104. doi: 10.1002/anzf.1137
Tseliou, E., Burck, C., Forbat, L. Strong, T. & O'Reilly, M. (2020) The discursive performance of change process in systemic and constructionist therapies: A systematic meta-synthesis review of in-session therapy discourse. Family Process.
Watson, R. (2018) Jointly created authority: a conversation
analysis of how power is managed by parents and systemic
psychotherapists in children's social care. Journal of Family Therapy,
Wulff et al (2015) Unpacking the pips to hips curiosity: a narrative study. Journal of Systemic Therapies, 34(2), pp. 45–58.
Wulff,
D., George, S.S.,
Tomm, K. (2015) Societal
discourses that help in family therapy: a modified situational
analysis of the relationships between societal expectations and
healing patterns in parent-child conflict.
Journal of Systemic
Therapies,
34(2), pp. 31-44.
Post-Hoc Accounts of Therapy Process
Chenail, R.J. (2011) How
to conduct clinical qualitative research on the patient’s
experience.
The Qualitative
Report 16(4), pp.
1173-1190
Chenail, R. J., et al. (2012). Clients’ relational conceptions of conjoint couple and family therapy quality: A grounded formal theory. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 38(1), pp. 241-264. doi: 10.1111/j.1752-0606.2011.00246.x
Egeli et al (2014) Couples’ Experiences of Vulnerability When Participating in the Reflecting Team Process: A Case Study. Canadian Journal of Counselling and Psychotherapy / Revue canadienne de counseling et de psychothérapie. 48(4), pp. 20–39. ISSN 0826-3893
Helmeke,
K. B. and Sprenkle, D. H. (2000) Clients'
perceptions of pivotal moments in couples therapy: a qualitative
study of change in therapy.
Journal of Marital
and Family Therapy, 26,
pp. 469–483.
Hicks, S., Jakob, P. and Kustner, C. (2020), Engaging a family’s support network in non‐violent resistance: the experiences of supporters. Journal of Family Therapy, 42: 252-270. doi:10.1111/1467-6427.12261
Kysely et al (2020) Expectations and experiences of couples receiving therapy through videoconferencing: A qualitative study. Frontiers in Psychology.
Salter, L. (2017) Research as resistance and solidarity: 'spinning transformative yarns' - a narrative inquiry with women going on from abuse and oppression. Journal of Family Therapy. 39. 3: 366-385
Tilden, T. (2020) The idiographic voice in a nomothetic world: Why client feedback is essential in our professional knowledge. in Ochs, M., Borcsa, M. & Schweitzer, J. (2020) Systemic Research in Individual, Couple and Family Therapy and Counseling. Springer.
Tseliou, E., Burck, C., Forbat, L., Strong, T. and O’Reilly, M. (2020), How is Systemic and Constructionist Therapy Change Process Narrated in Retrospective Accounts of Therapy? A Systematic Meta‐synthesis Review. Family Process doi:10.1111/famp.12562
Wiseman, H., Ensoll, S., Russouw, L. & Butler, C. (2019) Multi-Family Therapy for Young People With Anorexia Nervosa: Clinicians' and Carers' Perspectives on Systemic Changes. Journal of Systemic Therapies 38, 3, 67-83
Yap‐Tan, P.M.E.H. and Foo, M.T.S. (2020), Clients’ perspectives on therapists who build family and personal harmony. Journal of Family Therapy, 42: 271-290. doi:10.1111/1467-6427.12265
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Doctoral systemic and family therapy research carried out on the Professional Doctorate in Systemic Psychotherapy at the Tavistock. Many full texts...
Titles and links to Systemic Doctorate and Phd Theses carried out at other Institutes and Universities
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