This book introduces the German-language audience to Multidimensional Family Therapy (MDFT), a treatment method for addressing adolescents who abuse drugs and have multiple behavioural problems as well as their families. It has been developed since 1985 by Prof. Howard Liddle in Miami, USA, and has been employed and empirically tested since then both in North America and Europe. First, the book offers a compact overview of how MDFT came to be, how it works and how it is evaluated. Besides the existing research results on its effectiveness, the reader is also introduced to the theoretical and scientific background of this method. MDFT works parallel on four different levels: that of the adolescent, of the parents, of the family as a unit and of the family´s environment. The principles and guidelines of this therapeutic method comprise the basic therapeutic competences and interventions as well as the structure and format of the therapeutic process, important working utensils and the MDFT-specific form of supervision.At the center of this volume lies the presentation of the MDFT in practice, using case examples and excerpts from actual therapy sessions, which serve to concretely illustrate how the therapy is conducted in the various subsystems and phases.
