Toward progress research: Closing the gap between family therapy practice and research

Couple and family therapy research (CFTR) has had little, if any, impact on the practice of most couple and family therapists. Because of a variety of factors, most CFTR is too experience distant-it does not relate to therapists' experience of doing therapy or provide meaningful information that can affect what they do with particular clients(1) over the course of therapy. In this article, we review the major findings that have emerged from CFTR, identify some of the factors that limit its relevance to clinicians, and present a more clinically relevant model for research that can change and inform treatment.