Introduction to Medical Family Therapy: Advanced Applications

Clinical Training and Practice Patterns of Medical Family Therapists: A National Survey

“…This result could come from MedFTs who do not work in an integrated care or medical setting and do not have as much exposure to medical referrals from doctors and other healthcare professionals. Chronic pain (Croft, Blyth, & van der Windt, ; Van Hecke, Torrance, & Smith, ) and diabetes (American Diabetes Association, ; Hermanns et al., ) are not the two of the most common chronic illnesses seen in medical settings; they are increasingly being treated by MedFTs and mental health professionals in primary care (Hodgson et al., ; Marlowe et al., ; McDaniel et al., ). For MedFTs who do work in these care settings, perhaps many function in a co‐located role, fragmented from other providers who could offer more medical or chronic health referrals.…”

“…While more mental health providers are becoming integrated and assuming roles in the medical culture, assessing the experience, competencies, and skills needed to work in this environment is still lagging behind. With the emergence of both the five‐level MedFT healthcare continuum (Hodgson et al., ) and established MedFT core competencies (Tyndall et al., ), educators and supervisors should attend to specific skills that professionals should possess based on their levels of training and overall experience. There is a critical need in MedFT research to explore whether therapists actually take a biopsychosocial approach when assessing for patient problems and what possible actions to take when collaborating with other providers.…”

“…The practice of Medical family therapy (MedFT) has grown steadily since its inception in the 1980s (Hodgson, Lamson, Mendenhall, & Tyndall, ; McDaniel, Hepworth, & Doherty, ; Ruddy & McDaniel, ). This evolution as a clinical framework and orientation in practice offers unique contributions to care professionals, especially family therapists (Marlowe, ; McDaniel, Doherty & Hepworth, ; Rolland, ).…”

“…MedFTs and behavioral health consultants (BHCs) have also worked with other medical professionals in providing care for families struggling with a myriad of these chronic illnesses and diseases, such as anorexia nervosa (Cubic & Bluestein, ; Eisler, ), asthma (Carr, ; Fiese & Wamboldt, ), cancer (Northouse, Katapodi, Song, Zhang, & Mood, ; Scott, Halford, & Ward, ; Yeager et al., ), chronic pain (Robinson & Reiter, ; Runyan, Schinaman, & O'Donohue, ), diabetes (Munshower, ; Robinson, Barnacle, Pretorius, & Paulman, ; Zubatsky & Mendenhall, in press), heart disease (Katon et al., ), and somatization (Blount & Adler, ; Robinson & Reiter, ). Additionally, there are opportunities for therapists to work in medical specialties, including (but not limited to) rehabilitation medicine, reproductive health, and geriatrics (Hodgson et al., ).…”

“…Although the clinical framework and techniques of MedFT have been in existence for the past few decades (Hodgson et al., ; McDaniel et al., ,), little research has been updated on how professionals apply these skills and collaborative practices with patients and families. Until recent years, no evaluations or protocols were previously available to assess how skilled MedFTs were in applying the biopsychosocial approach and other key principles to working with individuals and families (Bischoff, Springer, Reisbig, Lyons, & Likcani, ; Hodgson et al., ). This lack of formal assessment or evaluation of MedFTs is concerning, given that the landscape of the profession has changed rapidly.…”