Medical family therapy (MedFT) represents a rapidly growing field in health care
that purposefully interweaves patients and their families’ physical, psychological,
social, and spiritual worlds. It does this with both scientific rigor and systemic training at its foundation. Originally coined in the 1990s, MedFT challenged outdated
orthodoxies like mind-versus-body and nature-versus-nurture (McDaniel,
Hepworth, & Doherty, 1992). The field has since served to bridge multiple facets of
the healthcare system together, including collaborative and integrated behavioral
healthcare (IBHC) research, training, policy, and practice (McDaniel, Doherty, &
Hepworth, 2014; Hodgson, Lamson, Mendenhall, & Crane, 2014). Since these early
beginnings, MedFT has grown in its visibility, scope, and influence across training
programs, healthcare contexts, research, and policy discussions around the world.
MedFTs are now serving as leaders in educational, research, policy, and clinical
service settings wherever it is taught, studied, advocated, and provided.