Preparing to be a medical family therapist: Bridging the multiple worlds of health care

Medical family therapists (MedFTs) functioning as behavioral health providers (BHPs) within healthcare settings encounter unique cultural and contextual factors, as well as biopsychosocial-spiritual (BPSS) stressors, that are often more acute and intense than those experienced by providers in conventional freestanding behavioral health clinics/agency settings. In this chapter, the authors describe concrete strategies for MedFTs to effectively enter and integrate themselves into these complex healthcare contexts. Common experiences highlighted include both difficult (e.g., coping with a sense of not initially "fitting in" with traditional behavioral health providers or biomedical colleagues) and enriching (e.g., becoming valuable members of integrated healthcare teams) sequences.