ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the history and origins of multisystemic therapy, the theoretical and empirical bases of the treatment model, a summary of the clinical treatment model, and a synopsis of research outcomes. The clinical procedures that have come to define multisystemic therapy (MST) were first used by Scott Henggeler and a cadre of talented doctoral students in clinical psychology at Memphis State University in the late 1970s. Community psychology emphasizes the role that influences outside the individual play in the development of behavior. In 1992 Henggeler moved to the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC), where, in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, he founded the Family Services Research Center (FSRC). In the mid-1990s, as evidence of MST effectiveness became more widely known, stakeholders in communities across the nation began to request the development of MST programs. The social ecological theory of Bronfenbrenner also conceptualizes human behavior within a contextual framework.
