Editorial

Abstract

The editorial gives an introduction to the articles included in the current issue of "Journal of Family Therapy". Nearly all the papers reviewed were behaviourally oriented and included individual or partner-assisted exposure therapy as a major part of the intervention. The research update by Michael Byrne, Alan Carr and Marie Clark continues the systematic work of this group of reviewing the evidence for the efficacy of family and couple interventions, this time in panic disorder and agoraphobia. Catherine Allen grapples with how to reconcile a systemic view with diagnostic labels, particularly when the diagnostic label tends to have a pejorative connotation such as Borderline Personality Disorder. Many of the themes raised by Catherine Allen are also very relevant to the paper on domestic violence by Mark Rivett and Alyson Rees and the commentary by Arlene Vetere and Jan Cooper. The last two papers provide good examples of the importance of research outside of the current focus on evidence-based practice. The editorial ends with a brief note about Gianfranco Cecchin, who sadly died in a car accident just over five weeks ago. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)