Editorial: Research on Rarely Researched Family Therapies

• Author: Jay L. Lebow
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/famp.12404
• Published date: 01 December 2018
• Date: 01 December 2018

DECEMBER 2018 VOLUME 57 NUMBER 4

Editorial: Research on Rarely Researched Family

Therapies

JAY L. LEBOW*

Fam Proc 57:849–854, 2018

This issue contains an overview by Jaakko Seikkula, Anu Karvonen, Virpi-Liisa

Kykyri, Markku Penttonen, and Pandetra Nyman-Salonen (2018) from the Depart-

ment of Psychology, University of Jyvaskyla, Jyvaskyla Finland, about the relational

mind project. In this article, Seikkula et al. employ diverse research method s from a vari-

ety of disciplines, anchored in a Batesonian relational framework, to assess processes in

dialogical therapy. This innovative effort has already produced findings which can inform

the practice of couple and family therapy (Olson, Laitila, Rober, & Seikkula, 2012; Seik-

kula, Karvonen, Kykyri, Kaartinen, & Penttonen, 2015), but also has great importance as

a prime example of the extension of research methods into treatment con texts that previ-

ously had rarely been subject to empirical investigation.

The co-evolution of couple-family therapy and research assessing and informing that

therapy has had a complex history. Family therapy began as a great adventure into

exploring systemic aspects of family life and how one might intervene in those processes.

In this examination, the founders of family therapy brought a rigorous process to their

investigation. Families, both in and out of treatment, were examined on a moment-

by-moment basis from the multiple perspectives of those observing, often gathered behind

a one-way mirror (Bateson, Jackson, Haley, & Weakland, 1956; Beels, 2011; Haley, 1963,

1996; Whitaker & Malone, 1953). Given the interdisciplinary nature of early family ther-

apy, these investigations were memorialized through many different kinds of reports,

ranging from traditional psychological research to case reports in the psychoanalytic tra-

dition to anthropological investigations of interpersonal processes and non-verbal commu-

nication. Early on, there was also wide acceptance that research evidence was an essential

building block for the field, both because of the intrinsic value of the scientific method, and

to ensure that family therapy was properly recognized among the various mental health

treatments (Framo, 1962, 1972; Pinsof, Wynne, & Hambright, 1996; Wynne, 1983). This

*Editor, Family Process, and Family Institute at Northwestern, Evanston, IL.

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Jay Lebow, Family Institute at North-

western, 618 Library Place, Evanston, IL 60201. E-mail: j-lebow@northwestern.edu

849

Family Process, Vol. 57, No. 4, 2018 ©2018 Family Process Institute

doi: 10.1111/famp.12404