The mission of the Dan J. Epstein Family Foundation Center for Psychotherapy Change is to transform psychotherapy throughout the world by integrating science, technology and family systems.
The Epstein Center for Psychotherapy Change is an international leader in feedback research and empirically-informed psychotherapy. Our measurement systems set a worldwide benchmark for assessing individuals, couples and families, for tracking change over the course of therapy, and for studying therapists' behavior. Our feedback tools provide therapists and institutions with timely, accurate information about clients and therapists that facilitates data-informed, multi-systemic psychotherapy services and empowers clients as collaborators in their treatment. By coordinating large-scale data collection in treatment centers across the globe we illuminate how clients and therapists collaborate in the change process and improve the efficacy and efficiency of therapy.
The overarching goals of the Epstein Center are:
- to have a deeper understanding of how people change
- to understand how therapists contribute to client change
- to improve the quality and efficiency of therapy
- to develop tools and techniques for integrating research and clinical practice
Systemic Therapy Inventory of Change (STIC®) Feedback System
Rooted in their work with Integrative Systemic Therapy, the research team at The Family Institute at Northwestern University, spearheaded by Dr. William Pinsof, began the development of a new measure in the early 1990s to study client change in individual, couple and family therapy. The result was the Systemic Therapy Inventory of Change, or STIC®, an instrument designed to efficiently and accurately assess clients' functioning on a range of personal and relational issues, all on one system.
The STIC® Randomized Clinical Trial (RCT) was developed by researchers in the Epstein Center for Psychotherapy Change in 2012 to assess whether providing feedback to therapists, and the integration of STIC® data into practice, improves treatment. Although previous research suggests that empirical feedback does improve therapy outcomes, no such studies had been conducted in systemic therapy. The results of the RCT provide support that using a systemic measure and providing feedback to therapists improves client outcomes. Data collection on the RCT was completed several years ago and the Epstein Center is no longer actively involved in data collection.
Key RCT Findings
- Results show that the STIC® is an accurate measurement tool with strong ability to detect real change in therapy
- Using the STIC® feedback system improves outcomes in therapy
- The impact of STIC® data can be seen across all types of therapy and all measures of outcome
Principal Investigator:
Richard E. Zinbarg, Ph.D.
Chief Research Consultant & Chief Scientist of Epstein Center
Research Instruments
Pinsof, W. M., Lebow, J. L., Zinbarg, R, Mayberry, M., Chambers, A., Goldhaber, K, Knobloch-Fedders, L. (2010). The Integrative Therapy Session Report (ITSR). The Family Institute at Northwestern University.
Pinsof, W. M., Zinbarg, R. E., Lebow, J. L., Knobloch-Fedders, L .M., Durbin, E., Chambers, A., Latta, T., Karam, E., Goldsmith, J., & Friedman, G. (2009). The STIC® (Systemic Therapy Inventory of Change). Initial and Intersession, V.2.0. The Family Institute at Northwestern University.
Pinsof, W. M. (2005). The Integrative Psychotherapy Alliance: Family, Couple and Individual Therapy Alliance Scales: Revised-Short Form. The Family Institute at Northwestern University.
Pinsof, W. M. (1997). The Integrative Psychotherapy Alliance: Family, Couple and Individual Therapy Alliance Scales: Revised. The Family Institute at Northwestern University.
BOOK CHAPTERS
Goldsmith, J. Z., Pinsof, W. M., Lebow, J. L., & Chambers, A. L. (2016). Family and relational diagnosis: Toward multi-systemic assessment. In J. C. Norcross, G. R. VandenBos, & D. K. Freedheim (Eds.). APA Handbook of Clinical Psychology, Vol. 4: Psychopathology and Health. Washington, DC: APA
Pinsof, W. M., Tilden, T., & Goldsmith, J. Z. (2016) Empirically informed couple and family therapy: Past, present and future. In. T.L. Sexton and J. L. Lebow (Eds.). Handbook of Family Therapy: The Science and Practice of Working with Families and Couples (2nd edition) (pp. 500-516), New York: Routledge.
Russell, W. P., Pinsof, W. M., Breunlin, D. D., & Lebow, J. L. (2016). Integrative Problem Centered Metaframeworks (IPCM) Therapy. In. T.L. Sexton and J. L. Lebow (Eds.). Handbook of Family Therapy: The Science and Practice of Working with Families and Couples (2nd edition) (pp. 530-544), New York: Routledge.
Pinsof, W. M., Breunlin, D. C., Chambers, A. L., Solomon, A. H., & Russell, W. P. (2015). Integrative, multi-systemic and empirically informed couple therapy: The IPCM perspective. In A. Gurman, J. Lebow, & D. K. Snyder (Eds.), Clinical handbook of couple therapy (5th ed.) (pp. 161-191). New York, NY: The Guilford Press.
Pinsof, W. M., & Chambers, A. L. (2009). Empirically informed systemic psychotherapy: Tracking patient change and therapist behavior during therapy. In J. Bray & M. Stanton (Eds.) Handbook of Family Psychology. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing.
REFERRED JOURNAL ARTICLES
Pinsof, W. Zinbarg, R., He, Y., Goldsmith, J., Latta, T. & Lebow, J. (in press). Does the STIC Measurement and Feedback System Improve Mutlisystemic Outcomes in Individual, Couple and Family Therapy? A Randomized Clinical Trial. Psychotherapy Research.
He, Y.*, Hardy, N.*, Zinbarg, R., Goldsmith, J., Kramer, A.*, Williams, A.* & Pinsof, B. The Systemic Therapy Inventory of Change (STIC) Initial Scales: Are they sensitive to change? (2019). Psychological Assessment, 31, 1107-1117.
Zinbarg, R., Pinsof, W., Quirk, K.*, Kendall, A.*, Goldsmith, J., Hardy, N.*, He, Y.*, Sabey, A.* & Latta, T. (2018). Testing the convergent and discriminant validity of the Systemic Therapy Inventory of Change Initial Scales. Psychotherapy Research, 28, 734 - 749.
Pinsof, W. M., Zinbarg, R. E., Shimokawa, K., Goldsmith, J. Z., Latta, T. A., Knobloch-Fedders, L. M., & Chambers, A. L. (2015). Confirming, validating and norming the factor structure of the STIC Initial and Intersession. Family Process, 54 (3), 464-484.
Pinsof, W. M., Goldsmith, J. Z., & Latta, T. A. (2012). Information technology and feedback research can bridge the scientist–practitioner gap: A couple therapy example. Couple and Family Psychology: Research and Practice, 1:4, 253-273.
Breunlin, D. C., Pinsof, W. M, Russell, W. P., & Lebow, J. L. (2011) Integrative problem-centered metaframeworks (IPCM) therapy 1: Core concepts and hypothesizing. Family Process, 50, 293-313.
Pinsof, W. M., Breunlin, D. C., Russell, W. P., & Lebow, J. L. (2011) Integrative Problem-centered metaframeworks (IPCM) therapy 2: Planning, conversing and reading feedback. Family Process, 50, 314-336.
Pinsof, W. M., Zinbarg, R. E., Lebow, J. L., Knobloch-Fedders, L. M., Durbin, E., Chambers, A., Latta, T., Karam, E., Goldsmith, J., & Friedman, G. (2009). Laying the foundation for progress research in family, couple, and individual therapy: The development and psychometric features of the initial systemic therapy inventory of change. Psychotherapy Research, 19(2), 143-156.
Pinsof, W. M., Zinbarg, R. E., Knobloch-Fedders, L. M. (2008). Factorial and construct validity of the revised short form integrative psychotherapy alliance scales for family, couple, and individual therapy. Family Process 47, 281-301.
Tilden, T., Wampold, B., Ulvenes, P., Zahl-Olsen, R., Hofart, A., Barstad, B., Olsen, I., Gude, T. Nilssen, H., Tellefsen, H., Zinbarg, R. & Pinsof, W. (2020). Feedback in Couple and Family Therapy: A Randomized Clinical Trial. Family Process, 59, 36 – 51.
Seiter, N., Quirk, K., Hardy, N., Zinbarg, R., Goldsmith, J. & Pinsof, W. (2020). Changes in commitment and sexual satisfaction: Trajectories in couple therapy. Journal of Sex & Marital Therapy, 46, 296-302.
Sabey, A.*, Jensen, J. Major, S. Zinbarg, R. & Pinsof, W. (2020). Are older adults unique? Examining presenting issues and changes in therapy across the life span. Journal of Applied Gerontology, 39, 250-258.
He, Y.*, Hardy, N.*, Zinbarg, R., Goldsmith, J., Kramer, A.*, Williams, A.* & Pinsof, B. The Systemic Therapy Inventory of Change (STIC) Initial Scales: Are they sensitive to change? (2019). Psychological Assessment, 31, 1107-1117.
Zinbarg, R., Pinsof, W., Quirk, K.*, Kendall, A.*, Goldsmith, J., Hardy, N.*, He, Y.*, Sabey, A.* & Latta, T. (2018). Testing the convergent and discriminant validity of the Systemic Therapy Inventory of Change Initial Scales. Psychotherapy Research, 28, 734 - 749.
Pinsof, W., Zinbarg, R., Shimokawa, K.*, Latta, T., Goldsmith, J., Knobloch-Fedders, L., Chambers, A. & Lebow, J. (2015). Confirming, validating and norming the factor structure of Systemic Inventory of Change Initial and Intersession. Family Process, 54, 464 – 484.