Domain D4 · Evaluating Ongoing Process and Terminating Treatment · 16% of the exam
Evaluating Ongoing Process and Terminating Treatment: monitoring progress, feedback, and termination
Outline: draftBy The Licensure Professor
Study material in progress. This is a lesson outline, not finished lesson text. Nothing on this page is official exam content. Items were written for this site and checked against published sources. They have not yet been reviewed by a licensed marriage and family therapist.
Learning objectives
- Monitor the therapeutic process and outcomes and adjust the plan.
- Use client feedback and measures to evaluate progress.
- Recognize impasse and ruptures and respond to them.
- Plan termination, referral, and follow-up.
- Describe how AI-generated progress data should and should not be used.
Key terms
- Outcome monitoring
- Feedback-informed treatment
- Impasse
- Rupture and repair
- Termination
- Referral
- Follow-up
- Premature termination
Suggested sources
- Nichols, M. P., & Davis, S. D. (2020). Family therapy: Concepts and methods (12th ed.). Pearson.
- Goldenberg, H., Stanton, M., & Goldenberg, I. (2017). Family therapy: An overview (9th ed.). Cengage.
- American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy. (2026). AAMFT code of ethics (effective January 1, 2026). https://www.aamft.org/common/Uploaded%20files/Legal%20Ethics/AAMFT%20Code%20of%20Ethics.pdf
- Association of Marital and Family Therapy Regulatory Boards. (2026). AMFTRB MFT national examination handbook for candidates (2027 ed.). https://ptcny.com/pdf/AMFTRB.pdf
Ethics content on this section follows the AAMFT Code of Ethics (American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy).