This qualitative study explores the diverse experiences of Black students who are currently enrolled in, or recently graduated from, various marriage and family therapy (MFT) graduate school programs in the United States. This study uses minority stress theory and critical race theory to explore the lived experiences of Black graduate students at…

Growing evidence suggests that many people do not see the differences between relationship education (RE) and couples therapy (CT). In fact, many lack information regarding the details and processes included in both RE and CT. If the differences are not understood, fewer people may be inclined to attend RE. RE has experienced various recruitment…

Objective: This article describes the validation of the Religious/Spiritually Integrated Process Assessment Scale (RSIPAS) across five helping professions. The RSIPAS was originally developed to measure clinical social workers' self-efficacy, attitudes, perceived feasibility, behaviors, and overall orientation toward integrating clients' religion…

The direct link between the student-teacher relationship and student success has been heavily researched in the postsecondary educational setting, especially the student-teacher relationship between African American students and African American instructors. The importance of this relationship is often highlighted when there is underrepresentation…

Counselors and marriage and family therapists work with individuals, couples, and families on issues related to sexuality. However, clinicians may be underserving their clients by "not" having adequate training and preparation to work with clients with these presenting issues. One mitigating factor in the treatment of sexual problems is…

Some couples seek counseling to address warning signs. They may not be facing a relationship crisis but may be more concerned about where they are headed. Hence, a marriage makeover may not necessarily be needed, but instead couples in counseling may benefit from something rejuvenating. In such cases, brief interventions or techniques may be…

This brief report responds to the relative dearth of information available about MFT doctoral dissertations. A preliminary analysis of one COAMFTE [Commission on Accreditation for Marriage and Family Therapy Education] program is detailed. Suggestions for future action are offered. (Contains 1 table.)

We examined the utility of naive ratings of communication patterns and relationship quality in a large sample of distressed couples. Untrained raters assessed 10-min videotaped interactions from 134 distressed couples who participated in both problem-solving and social support discussions at each of 3 time points (pre-therapy, post-therapy, and…

Assessing and measuring client motivation to change has been of great interest to therapists and researchers in a variety of fields. This article presents the results of an exploratory factor analysis of the University of Rhode Island Change Assessment (URICA), a measure of motivation to change, in a sample of individuals in couple therapy. Four…

This study examined the basic utility of topic models, a computational linguistics model for text-based data, to the investigation of the process of couple therapy. Linguistic analysis offers an additional lens through which to examine clinical data, and the topic model is presented as a novel methodology within couple and family psychology that…

This article introduces the special section "New Research Findings on Emotionally Focused Therapy." Emotionally focused couple therapy researchers have a strong tradition of outcome and process research and this special section presents new findings from three recent studies. The first study furthers the goal of determining the kinds of clients…

Depression is a heterogeneous disorder with lifetime prevalence of "major depressive disorder" estimated to be 16.2%. Although the disorder is common and impairs functioning, it often goes untreated, with less than adequate response even when treated. We review research indicating the likely value of utilizing currently available, well-validated,…

What is the extent to which marriage/couple and family therapy (M/CFT) journals address transgender issues and how many of them say they are inclusive of transgender persons when they are not? To answer these queries, a content analysis was conducted on articles published in M/CFT literature from 1997 through 2009. Of the 10,739 articles examined…

Current research about families and couples who have children with autism is discussed using the Double ABCX model as a guide. A case study is presented along with recommendations for therapists who work with couples who have children with autism. Marriage and family therapists are encouraged to use the Double ABCX model as both an assessment tool…

This article reviews the research on couple therapy over the last decade. The research shows that couple therapy positively impacts 70% of couples receiving treatment. The effectiveness rates of couple therapy are comparable to the effectiveness rates of individual therapies and vastly superior to control groups not receiving treatment. The…