ABSTRACT
Above we have noted that therapists and agencies can have formal processes by which they monitor the effectiveness of the work done. Sometimes this merges into empirical research. There is always an issue in therapeutic practice of how outcome should be assessed and whether this should rely on clinical judgement, family view or whether it requires an empirical process. It is important to distinguish between the two types of research activity and clinical practice. Certainly the role and function of research in clinical practice need to be recognised as they are central in the development of practice, but the correspondence between the aims of researchers and practitioners is more apparent than real. Their activities in achieving the aim of shedding light on questions about best practice are not the same. They adopt methods that best address their particular lines of enquiry and although the ®elds are interested in the same phenomena each is constructed and equipped to answer different questions (Rivett and Street 2003): one through the application of psychotherapy in its clinical context and the other through the strategy of protocols and methods aimed at obtaining data and testing hypotheses. In developing a therapeutic practice it must be recognised that in the last analysis the requirements of the therapists should predominate.
