ABSTRACT
Couple and family therapy (CFT) research has grown dramatically during the last 2 decades. The traditional methods of outcome and process research, developed primarily in individually focused psychotherapy research, are not always applicable in CFT because of the relational and systemic nature of problems, pathology, interventions, and change. A number of specific methodological challenges also make CFT clinical research difficult. The challenges of conducting rigorous studies of CFT are partially responsible for creating a complex, unique, and varied array of CFT psychotherapy research studies. Large-scale studies are also part of systematic research agendas that follow increasingly specific and complex questions of outcome and change process within different clinical problems. CFT has evolved into a complex domain, involving thousands of research studies asking a myriad of questions and producing results that can be difficult to understand.
