Contemporary Family Therapy

, Volume 37, Issue 1, pp 13–21 | Cite as

Multidimensional Family Therapy (MDFT) with an Adult IP: A Case Study

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Abstract

The family therapy case of a depressed mother is presented as an example of the therapeutic benefits of building family relationships through multi-leveled interventions, Including psycho education, here-and-now process commentary, and family structural techniques. Family structure, mother daughter relationships, and the mother’s mental health all improved near simultaneously, as predicted by the theory of multi-dimensional family therapy (MDFT). Accordingly, the case is conceptualized through MDFT and is argued to demonstrate the theory’s applicability to families with a severely mentally ill adult as the identified patient (IP). This is significant because research on MDFT generally supports its efficacy in treating families with an adolescent IP, though has not yet been validated as an approach to treating families with an adult as the IP. Positive results from this case suggests that further study on this application of MDFT is warranted.

Keywords

MDFT Family therapy Interventions Multidimensional family therapy Depression 
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Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media New York 2015

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.California School for Professional PsychologyAlliant International UniversitySan FranciscoUSA

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