As a family therapist who is very aware of the origins of family systems theory in the US, I am committed to the idea that marriage and family therapists should understand that the very idea of a system -- whether it is a family system or a human system -- should apply to everyone in this country https://blog.aamft.org/2020/06/aamft-statement-on-mft-responsibility-to-counter-racism.html. I also practice with an understanding that we are the best and most comprehensively trained "talk therapists" in the American mental health system. The number of practicing marriage and family therapists is increasing at twice the rate of all other comparable therapists (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics). The systems based medical concepts we are trained with are applicable, without exception, to mental health practice with every psychiatric disorder. This allows for communication about these symptoms and disorders that is correct universally and can be safely disseminated outside of the individual treatment context. Also, because MFTs focus on more than one person at a time as well as on the family relationships that are the basis of psychotherapy, we diagnose specific symptoms accurately from the multiple disorders in which they originate, rather than simply diagnosing and treating entire disorders indiscriminately. This allows patients to understand, psychiatrically, how their symptoms are being caused, what is changing cognitively as a part of the treatment process, and for them to understand, specifically, what symptoms are or are not being effected by psychoactive medications.
Despite the overwhelmingly consistent reaction of people who may have had previous mental health treatment or experience with mental health, marriage and family therapy is not a 'new approach' to therapy at all but a more complete application of how it is actually supposed to work. It began to emerge academically a century ago (about 30 years after Freud developed psychoanalysis). It was created by psychiatrists, theoreticians, and therapists who understood how psychiatry, supportive relationships, and therapy work together to heal symptoms as well as the comprehensive applicability (meaning, now, applicability to ALL families and to ALL people) of psychiatry as a medical discipline.
As a Resident in Marriage and Family Therapy in Virginia, I was trained specifically to work with nurses, physicians (PCPs), adult and child and adolescent psychiatrists, and psychiatric staff to safely heal presenting symptoms with the most effective information and professional resources available to do so. In the end, my training was especially comprehensive because it was pre-approved by the Virginia Department of Health Professions, because of the many medical contexts (VCU Medical Center, Chippenham Hospital, Southside Regional Medical Center, Residential Treatment Centers statewide, etc.) where Residency occurred, because it was based exhaustively on the most comprehensive (common factors) information available to educate and train marriage and family therapists, and because Residency (in Marriage and Family Therapy) was continuing indefinitely because of a mistake until my additional work with the Virginia legislature helped pass laws (HB 1702 and HB 2177, 2013 Session; HB 1902 was left in "Health, Welfare and Institutions") that helped permanently acknowledge marriage and family therapy as a distinct health profession regulated by the DHP and they allowed me to submit my Residency hours and to take the National MFT Exam.
Philip M. Campbell, AB'94, University of Chicago, MA, 2005, Eastern Mennonite University, MFT (2007), L.M.F.T. December 4, 2024