title: Finding the heart of medical family therapy: a content analysis of medical family therapy casebook articles.
abstract: In an effort to identify the essential ingredients of medical family therapy, a content analysis of 15 peer-reviewed case studies in medical family therapy was conducted. The case studies were published from 1996 to 2007 in Families, Systems, & Health. Through a qualitative content analysis, three main themes emerged that describe the essence of the practice of medical family therapy: (1) The patient's multisystemic experience of disease, (2) treatment is about caring, not just caregiving, and (3) elevating the patient as collaborator in the care team.
authors.affiliation: University of Nebraska-Lincoln, NE68583-0800, USA. rbischoff2@unl.edu
authors.forename: Richard J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Bischoff
authors.forename: Paul R
authors.initials: PR
authors.lastname: Springer
authors.forename: Daniel S
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Felix
authors.forename: Cody S
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Hollist
mesh_terms: D005195:Family Relations; D005196:Family Therapy; D006801:Humans; D010348:Patient Care Team / Q000458:organization & administration* / Q000592:standards; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D011368:Professional-Family Relations