The Common Factors Model: Implications for Transtheoretical Clinical Social Work Practice
Mark Cameron and Elizabeth KingKeenan
Direct practice social workers today are challenged to address the requirements of the complex array of professional, organizational, institutional, and regulatory demands placed on them in the broader socioecononiic context of fewer resources and diminished public support for social welfare services in the United States.The conmon factors model provides an accessible, transtheoretical, empirically supported conceptual foundation for practice that may help to
resolve this conundrum and support effective practice. Common factors are conditions and processes activated and facilitated by strategies and skills that positively influence practice outcomes across a range of practice theories.The model provides an expanded conceptualization of the "active ingredients" required for change to include a focus on conditions and processes as well as practice strategies and to focus on all who are involved in the work. The model is
described and implications for practice are discussed.
KEY WORDS: change; common factors; empirical; social work practice; transtheoretical