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Abstract: 

This article describes Multidimensional Family Therapy (MDFT), an empirically supported family-oriented, multiple-systems approach to working with drug abusing teens in the juvenile justice system. Forestalling the progression into deeper deviancy and a more chronic drug abusing and criminal justice involved lifestyle is the overarching goal of the treatment approach. Achieving this kind of systemic, multi-domain change in an adolescent’s life requires interventions that target many domains of functioning and reach into different corners of the drug and criminal justice involved individual’s life, including different psychosocial contexts at different critical transition points.

Keywords: best practices

Affiliations:  1: University of Miami School of Medicine; 2: University of Miami School of Medicine; 3: University of Miami School of Medicine.