Family therapist--technician or clinician

The proliferation of family therapy training programs outside of academic institutions has led to an emphasis on technique and too little emphasis on human growth and development. Therapists are superficially trained and often cannot recognize serious abnormality. They have learned one approach and often apply it indiscriminately to every case. Strategies and techniques have superseded understanding. The challenge of the 80's in Family Therapy is to develop greater discrimination about when and how to use it. Developing criteria for what kind of family therapy is most appropriate for what type of family is the task at hand.