Effectiveness research in marriage and family therapy: introduction

The papers in this volume offer compelling evidence that MFT is making significant progress toward becoming an evidenced based discipline. Nonetheless, a large gap persists between research and practice, which perpetuates a false dichotomy between the art and science of treatment and has other deleterious consequences for the field. The methodological strengths of the investigations reported, which focus on clinical trials, are discussed along with concerns raised about this type of research. Several important challenges facing MFT research in the decades ahead are described. Finally, MFT education must be changed substantially to give more emphasis to the science of the discipline.