Abstract Authors: Carolina Magnusson and Johanna Magnusson Title:  The balance between research and practice. A study of family therapist’s knowledge retrieval and the application of evidence-based practice. Supervisor: Jan Petersson Assessor: Peter Hultgren During our research we discovered that a very small amount of research had been conducted about the effect of the social services. It inspired us to fulfill this study. The aim of the study is to describe and analyze what knowledge family therapists in two Swedish municipalities use in family therapy work. We were also interested in which methods they consider having the best effect for social services. Our data collection consisted of qualitative semi-structured interviews conducted with family therapists in two Swedish municipalities. Our primary focus of the study has been the meeting that is taking shape within the family treatment and which components are key elements. Based on the results we have also been able to draw conclusions about how the function of the social services family therapy can be improved and how the work process is characterized by an evidence-based practice. We discovered that family therapist’s knowledge acquisition was extremely haphazard and not on a systematic basis, which the evidence-based model requires.