Clinician's Guide to Research Methods in Family Therapy: Foundations of Evidence-Based Practice

Author(s): Lee Williams

Couple & Family Therapy

A research methods text with a unique focus on evidence-based practice with couples and families, this book bridges the divide between research and clinical work. The text offers comprehensive, user-friendly coverage of measurement and design issues and basic qualitative and quantitative methods. Illustrating research concepts with clinically relevant examples and sample studies, it teaches clear steps for evaluating different types of studies and identifying common threats to validity. Of special value to therapists, it provides a systematic framework for using research to guide the selection and evaluation of interventions that meet the needs of particular clients. Pedagogical features: *End-of-chapter "Applications" sections showing how to evaluate specific methods. *Appendices with quick-reference guides and recommended resources. *Instructive glossary. See also the authors' Essential Skills in Family Therapy, Second Edition: From the First Interview to Termination, which addresses all aspects of real-world clinical practice, and Essential Assessment Skills for Couple and Family Therapists, which shows how to weave assessment into all phases of therapy.


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"This book issues a clarion call to clinicians to become research informed. It fills a crucial gap by showing how to critically read and understand research and how to apply evidence-based approaches in complex, flesh-and-blood clinical cases. The volume contains a treasure trove of resources that will be as valuable to instructors as to their students. This text will revolutionize how research methods are taught in master's-level mental health training programs; doctoral students will love the lists of websites, instruments, and other resources for evidence-based practice."--Douglas H. Sprenkle, PhD, Department of Child Development and Family Studies (Emeritus), Purdue University "Williams, Patterson, and Edwards have created a resource where none existed before--an accessible book about research for practitioners and students working with couples and families. The first part of the book provides a wonderfully succinct primer on research methods; the second part treads previously unexplored territory by offering an entree into evidence-based practice. The volume guides readers to the essential information they need about research: what it is, how to find and appraise it, how best to incorporate evidence-based methods into practice, and how to evaluate clients' progress. This book should become" the" core research methods text for master's-level programs in marital and family therapy, counseling, and psychology."--Jay Lebow, PhD, ABPP, LMFT, The Family Institute at Northwestern University "Ideally suited for students and therapists invested in learning more about the research process in order to be optimally effective clinicians. This reader-friendly text, written by leaders in the marital and family therapy field, brings research to life in a way that is engaging, comprehensible, and clinically applicable. By mastering effective strategies for integrating state-of-the-art research into practice, clinicians at all stages of development will find thei

Lee Williams, PhD, LMFT, is Professor in the Marital and Family Therapy Program at the University of San Diego. His research interests include family therapy training, marriage preparation, and couples with religious differences. Dr. Williams is coauthor (with JoEllen Patterson, Todd M. Edwards, et al.) of Essential Skills in Family Therapy, Second Edition, and Essential Assessment Skills for Couple and Family Therapists. JoEllen Patterson, PhD, is Professor in the Marital and Family Therapy Program at the University of San Diego. She is also a voluntary Clinical Associate Professor in the Divisions of Family Medicine and Global Health as well as the Department of Psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine. She serves on the editorial boards of Families, Systems, and Health and the Journal of Marital and Family Therapy. Dr. Patterson is coauthor (with Todd M. Edwards et al.) of The Therapist's Guide to Psychopharmacology, Revised Edition. Her Fulbright Scholarships have allowed her to work in other countries, including Norway, New Zealand, and Hong Kong. Todd M. Edwards, PhD, is Professor and Director of the Marital and Family Therapy Program at the University of San Diego, and provides individual and family therapy in the Division of Family Medicine at the University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine. His research and teaching interests focus on the integration of family-oriented mental health services into primary care settings; family therapy training; and male friendship in adulthood. He is Associate Editor of Families, Systems, and Health.

1. Learning to Apply Research: Why Bother?I. Research Foundations2. Measurement3. Internal Validity and Experiments4. External Validity and Sampling5. Survey Research6. Qualitative Research7. Miscellaneous Research Designs8. Ethics and Values in Research9. Descriptive Statistics10. Inferential Bivariate Statistics11. A Beginner's Guide to Multivariate StatisticsII. Evidence-Based Practice12. What is an Evidence-Based Approach?13. Ask and Acquire: Creating Questions and Conducting a Search14. Appraise: Reading and Evaluating Research Articles and Systematic Reviews15. Apply I: Translating Research Findings into Clinical Practice16. Apply II: Utilizing Couple and Family Therapy Research in Clinical Practice17. Apply III: How to Talk to Clients about an Evidence-Based Approach18. Analyze and Adjust: Evaluating Your Clinical Work19. The Future of Evidence-Based Practice: Looking into the Crystal BallAppendix I. Evidence-Based Practice Pocket Guide (the Five A's)Appendix II. Guide to Evaluating Research StudiesAppendix III. Evidence-Based Practice ResourcesGlossary

General Fields

  • : 9781462515974
  • : Guilford Publications
  • : Guilford Publications
  • : June 2014
  • : United States
  • : June 2014
  • : books

Special Fields

  • : Lee Williams
  • : Hardback
  • : 616.89156
  • : 290