Introducing research methods and reflexivity into family therapy training

Abstract

Research training does not always sit easily with family therapy trainees due to the perceived difficulty of the terrain and the mismatch between the primacy given to research and their developing expertise in the clinical work. Despite these tensions, research forms a core component to advanced training and is a requisite module for students completing an M.Sc. Following the provision of suboptimal teaching in research methods for M.Sc. candidates, a substantial redesign of the course was undertaken, taking into account the context of students’ learning. This paper reports on the contextual influences on this new approach, and outlines the key pedagogical strategies that support student learning within the formal teaching sessions and beyond. We present a summary of the outcomes so far.