Dr. James F. Alexander
FFT Founder, Clinical Director of FFT Inc.
Dr. James F. Alexander
FFT Founder, Clinical Director of FFT Inc.
FFT Inc. is the dissemination organization for Functional Family Therapy. Currently, FFT Inc. collaborates with over 220 sites around the world to deliver Functional Family Therapy. Dr. James F. Alexander, founder of the FFT model, is the Clinical Director for FFT Inc.
FFT is an empirically grounded, well-documented and highly successful family intervention for at-risk youth ages 10 to 18 whose problems range from acting out to conduct disorders to alcohol and/or substance abuse. Often these families tend to have limited resources, histories of failure, a range of diagnoses and multi-system exposure. Since Dr. Alexander founded FFT in 1972, FFT has demonstrated positive program outcomes across a wide range of youth and communities;
One of FFT’s hallmarks is its ability to fit an array of service delivery settings where at-risk adolescents are served. The robustness of the model has resulted in numerous adaptations of the traditional FFT model; as a case management practice for Juvenile Probation and Parole Officers (FFP), as a comprehensive Child Welfare intervention (FFT CW), and as part of a continuum of evidence-based programs within juvenile justice (Bluesky). The FFT model has been successfully replicated across the continuum of juvenile justice, mental health settings, child welfare systems, from prevention and diversion type programs to aftercare and parole, as well as traditional drug and alcohol and school-based programs.
Dr. Alexander’s FFT model is one of the nationally recognized Blueprints programs. In addition, FFT’s high rates of effectiveness have been recognized by:
FFT is one of four model programs named by the US Surgeon General as a model program for seriously delinquent youth (see Surgeon General’s Report on Youth Violence).
