Effectiveness and Efficiency of Strategic and Systemic Therapy in Naturalistic Settings: Preliminary Results from a Systemic Practice Research Network (SYPRENE)

SYPRENE, an international digital systemic practice research network (PRN), was established in 2014 to fill the gap in practice-based research on the effectiveness and efficiency of systemic therapies, starting with strategic therapies. This article reports initial outcome results. So far, twenty-seven therapists from several countries using the MRI brief therapy strategic approach have collected data for a wide range of problem diagnoses. Data are reported here for 1,150 completed cases. The drop-out rate was 19%. Significant improvement or complete problem resolution was reported by therapists in 80% and by patients in 90% of cases, with an average of 5.4 sessions and 5.3 months of treatment. Patients reported significant improvement on the GHQ-12 with a large effect size, and 76% of cases were evaluated as reaching reliable and clinically significant change. Practitioner points 1. SYPRENE is a digital practice research network 2. Outcome data have been collected on 1,079 cases. 3. Evidence supports the effectiveness of strategic therapy.