Jenny’s MSc and Doctorate Research was within the field of sibling relationships. This research considered the corrective and replicative family scripts of firstborns, middleborns, later-borns and last-borns.
The University of Bristol and the University of Coruna, Spain collaborated in research into the therapeutic alliances in couple and family therapy for which Jenny was a part. The research integrated research, theory and practice and was later published.
In recent years, clinical outcome research that assesses the effectiveness of systemic family therapy (SFT) has experienced significant innovations. Brief examples such as Children & Young People Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (CYPIAPT) as well as Improving Access to Psychological Therapies for Adults, NICE Guidelines together with a plethora of research and government directives have found that family & systemic psychotherapy to be effective for children, young people and adults through to old age when an individual has a mental health diagnosis and when there is more general or complex distress.
Whilst randomised controlled trials (RCT’s) are considered the gold standard approach for estimating the effects of treatments on outcomes there is growing interest in using observational (or non-randomised) studies to estimate the effects of treatments on outcomes. In addition, propensity score analysis has given SFT researchers the tools to create equivalent groups in quasi‐experimental designs that are more appropriate for assessing SFT effectiveness in real‐world clinical settings using the research from for which Jenny has been a part of when visiting students on placements at the University of Bristol using the model SOFTA – the System for Observing Family Therapy Alliances.
