Redefining the Role of Family Therapy in Psychiatric Residency Education

Abstract

In order to learn how psychiatry residents use family therapy training from residency in their clinical practices after graduation, the authors interviewed graduates from a large program in the metropolitan Northeast and a small program in the rural South. Graduates from both programs were using family therapy theory and skills to a greater extent than they had anticipated during residency. However, these skills were being used primarily to treat individual patients and to solve clinical and administrative problems in settings other than traditional couple and family therapies. Based on the findings, the authors suggest a restructuring of content and redefinition of role for family therapy training in psychiatry residencies.