Contributions to the study of violence and trauma: multisystemic therapy, exposure therapy, attachment styles, and therapy process research

Abstract

The prevention of future violence through engaging violent adolescents in multisystemic therapy and the treatment of trauma with exposure therapy are two of the most important scientific advances in the field of interpersonal violence in the past 20 years. A particularly significant methodological innovation is the development of reliable and valid measures of childhood and adult attachment because attachment deficits and their remediation are central to understanding and treating perpetrators of violence. In the coming decades, we need to refine existing treatment programs to make them effective for cases currently classified as treatment resistant. This will involve psychotherapy process research on the interaction between therapeutic mechanisms of change and unique personal vulnerabilities of treatment-resistant cases.