Medically oriented psychotherapists typically record progress notes by articulating client symptoms, diagnoses, functional
status, progress, and adherence to treatment plans. This orientation can challenge marriage and family therapists working
from discursive or post-modern perspectives. Although there are discursive therapy friendly treatment planning guides, no
published research on such practice exists. To address this gap the researchers conducted a recursive frame qualitative analysis
of 206 de-identified progress notes from 30 completed cases seen by MFT master’s students learning discursive approaches to
therapy in a university-based training clinic. Researchers found students noted problem to solution-focused discourse tipping
or turning points in 20 cases with positive outcomes and no comparable shifts in 10 cases with negative or unclear outcomes.
Keywords Family therapy - Case documentation - Progress notes - Training - Qualitative research - Postmodern