The Marriage and Family Therapy Program specifically prepares students to work in mental health, family service, medical, and human service settings. The emphasis is on structural, strategic, and systemic approaches to marriage and family therapy. Clinical training is provided under the direction of an approved supervisor of the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT) in the department's Marriage and Family Therapy Center. The clinical training emphasizes treating the individual, couple, and family in relationship to the larger systems that influence them. Supervised practica continue throughout the program. The program is fully accredited by the Commission on Accreditation for Marriage and Family Therapy Education and meets the academic requirements for clinical membership in the AAMFT. AAMFT standards require five hundred hours of clinical practice during the program. Additional hours of clinical practice under supervision will be required to meet AAMFT standards for clinical membership after graduation. See http://www.aamft.org for information on clinical membership.
Program requirements include:
- The twelve-credit core curriculum (FS 991, FS 993, and FS 994)
- Thirty-two semester hours of coursework, including FS 841, Marital and Family Therapy; FS 846, Human Sexuality; FS 897, Special Problems (1 credit each in sexual problems, gender, larger systems, and children in marriage and family therapy); FS 942, Advanced Systems of Marital and Family Therapy; FS 945, Family Therapy Practice I; FS 946, Critical Problems in Family Life; FS 947, Family Therapy Practice II.
- Successful completion of at least twenty credits of FS 898 (500 hours of supervised clinical practice).
- Completion and presentation of an integrative paper and video representing the student's theory of change. More information regarding the integrative paper will be distributed to each MFT student at the beginning of his or her second semester in the program.
For information on how to apply to the MFT program, see our admissions page.
