The Evidence Base of Family 
   The Evidence Base of Family 
   Therapy and Systemic Practice
   Therapy and Systemic Practice
   Peter Stratton
   Peter Stratton
   Emeritus Professor of Family Therapy, University of Leeds, UK
   Emeritus Professor of Family Therapy, University of Leeds, UK
   © The Association for Family Therapy and Systemic Practice UK
   © The Association for Family Therapy and Systemic Practice UK
               The Evidence Base of Family Therapy and Systemic 
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                                       Practice  
           Peter Stratton, Emeritus Professor of Family Therapy, University of Leeds, UK. 
                                    1  Overview 
                Family Therapy and Systemic Practice (FTSP) has evolved into a variety of forms to 
           meet  the  needs  of  the  people  who  come  for  therapy.  Our  clients  bring  the  full  range  of 
           psychological and relationship difficulties while living their lives in a variety of family structures 
           and relationships. They also occupy the full life span and the great range of ethnic and other 
           cultural variation that communities now contain. This review starts with an account of the basis 
           of systemic therapy and explains why it offers a particular kind of resource.  
                This report draws on a substantial number of recent meta-analyses and systematic reviews 
           that  consistently  point  to  a  strong  positive  conclusion  about  the  general  effectiveness  of  the 
           approach. We draw on the detail of all the research surveyed to identify the extensive range of 
           conditions, for children and adults, for which FTSP can be evaluated. These reviews demonstrate 
           successful application in the conditions for which significant amounts of comparative research 
           data have been published. 72 conditions (as defined by the research) found family therapy to meet 
           established criteria. FTSP is shown to have benefits beyond diagnosable conditions providing a 
           useful adjunct therapy or alternative approach when an initial approach has not worked.  
                Six major programmes for well-developed and documented forms of family therapy are 
           reported. They demonstrate high levels of effectiveness and cost-effectiveness. Many involve 
           therapies for adolescent substance abuse and conduct disorder. Funding, and thereby evidence, 
           follows  political  priorities  and  neglects  other  areas  of  need  in  the  population.  People  whose 
           suffering has been neglected by research funding risk being deprived of the services they need. 
                The research review demonstrates that systemic therapies are effective, acceptable to 
           clients, and cost effective for a sufficient range of conditions to give confidence that the wide 
           application in current practice is justified and could usefully be extended.
                                                                 
           1 Please reference as: Stratton, P (2016). The Evidence Base of Family Therapy and Systemic 
           Practice. Association for Family Therapy, UK.  
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                    Contents 
                    1    OVERVIEW ............................................................................................................................................... 1 
                    2    BACKGROUND OF THE REPORT ............................................................................................................... 3 
                       2.1     SCALE OF THE PROBLEM ............................................................................................................................... 3 
                       2.2     SYSTEMIC THERAPY BREAKS THE MOULD ......................................................................................................... 4 
                    3    REVIEW OF THE RESEARCH EVIDENCE ..................................................................................................... 6 
                       3.1     WHAT IS SYSTEMIC THERAPY? ....................................................................................................................... 6 
                         3.1.1    The Systemic Family Therapy Perspective ......................................................................................... 6 
                         3.1.2    How Systemic Family Therapy Works ............................................................................................... 8 
                       3.2     OVERVIEWS AND META-ANALYSES OF EFFICACY AND EFFECTIVENESS. .................................................................. 11 
                         3.2.1    Meta-Analyses and systematic studies combining findings on general efficacy. ........................... 13 
                         3.2.2    Some alternative approaches focused on core issues for therapists. ............................................. 20 
                       3.3     ESTABLISHED FORMS OF SFCT THAT HAVE BEEN EXAMINED IN EXTENSIVE RCTS AND OTHER RESEARCH ..................... 23 
                         3.3.1    Multi-Dimensional Family Therapy (MDFT) .................................................................................... 23 
                         3.3.2    Multisystemic therapy (MST) .......................................................................................................... 26 
                         3.3.3    Functional family therapy (FFT) ...................................................................................................... 28 
                         3.3.4    Brief strategic family therapy (BSFT) .............................................................................................. 29 
                         3.3.5    Emotion Focussed Therapy (EFT) .................................................................................................... 29 
                         3.3.6    Systemic couples therapy ................................................................................................................ 30 
                       3.4     REVIEWS OF THE EFFECTIVENESS OF FAMILY THERAPY FOR SPECIFIED CONDITIONS. ................................................ 31 
                         3.4.1    Family and couple therapy with children and adolescents ............................................................. 32 
                         3.4.2    Family and couple therapy with adults ........................................................................................... 33 
                         3.4.3    A Final alphabetical Listing of all conditions with evidence for efficacy or effectiveness. .............. 34 
                       3.5     CONSIDERATIONS BEYOND SIMPLE EFFECTIVENESS .......................................................................................... 38 
                         3.5.1    User acceptability and dropout ....................................................................................................... 38 
                         3.5.2    Cost-effectiveness ........................................................................................................................... 40 
                         3.5.3    What do Systemic Family and Couples Therapists do? ................................................................... 42 
                    4    CONCLUSIONS ....................................................................................................................................... 44 
                       4.1     FUTURE RESEARCH NEEDS .......................................................................................................................... 44 
                       4.2     WHY FAMILY THERAPY IS AN ESSENTIAL PROVISION. ........................................................................................ 47 
                    5    REFERENCES .......................................................................................................................................... 49 
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              The Evidence Base of Family Therapy and Systemic Practice 
                                    2  Background of the Report 
                                          2.1   Scale of the problem 
               “One in four adults experiences at least one diagnosable mental health problem in any given year. 
              People in all walks of life can be affected and at any point in their lives, including new mothers, 
              children, teenagers, adults and older people. Mental health problems represent the largest single cause 
              of disability in the UK. The cost to the economy is estimated at £105 billion a year – roughly the cost 
              of the entire NHS.” (Mental Health Taskforce to the NHS in England, 2016, p. 4).  
               
              These estimates are based on the person diagnosed as ill. But when one person has a mental illness all 
              members  of  their  family  are  impacted,  so  even  these  figures  are  a  likely  to  be  seriously 
              underestimated. There is a reciprocal tendency in that the person’s relationships are at least a potential 
              source of support but the tragedy is that the current mental health system makes too little provision for 
              helping families work effectively to help a member who is suffering. As evidenced in this report, 
              many cases of psychological difficulty benefit from being treated in collaboration with the person in 
              the context of their supportive relationships.  
              But  “despite  the  existence  of  cost-effective  treatments,  it  receives  only  13%  of  NHS  health 
              expenditure. The under-treatment of people with crippling mental illnesses is the most glaring case of 
              health inequality in our country.” ( LSE, 2012, p. 2).  
               
              A particular concern in the UK is the underfunding of mental health services for children which 
              receives only a small proportion of this 13% mental health budget: 
              “Half of all mental health problems have been established by the age of 14, rising to 75 per cent by 
              age 24. One in ten children aged 5 – 16 has a diagnosable problem such as conduct disorder (6 per 
              cent), anxiety disorder (3 per cent), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) (2 per cent) or 
              depression (2 per cent). Children from low income families are at highest risk, three times that of 
              those  from  the  highest.  Those  with  conduct  disorder  -  persistent,  disobedient,  disruptive  and 
              aggressive behaviour - are twice as likely to leave school without any qualifications, three times more 
              likely to become a teenage parent, four times more likely to become dependent on drugs and 20 times 
              more likely to end up in prison. Yet most children and young people get no support.” (Mental Health 
              Taskforce to the NHS in England, 2016, p.5).  
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