Today’s MFT Degree: A Glimpse at The Required Coursework Therein
- Family Systems Theory
- Ethical and Legal Issues in Couple and Family Therapy
- Substance Abuse in Couple and Family Therapy
- Counseling Across the Lifespan
- Diversity in Couple and Family Therapy
The master’s in family therapy, or MFT degree, is an excellent way into a life-changing career helping others. To earn this degree, one must learn and prove prowess in a number of important subject areas. Today’s MFT degree program covers all of these important areas of knowledge and more, and as such, students in this program can expect coursework such as the following required courses marking the path to graduation.
Related resource: Ranking Top 30 Graduate Degree Programs in Marriage and Family Therapy
1. Family Systems Theory
It only stands to reason that before one can become proficient in family therapy itself, they must first be well-versed in the subject of family systems theory. What are some of the leading theories in dual-person familial structure and its associated therapy approaches? What are the pragmatic implications of the various family systems theories, and how can each be utilized in real-life therapy endeavors? Learn all this and more right here.
2. Ethical and Legal Issues in Couple and Family Therapy
Ethical and legal borders form the operational confines in which smart and responsible family therapy professionals hold the position. However, no family therapy expert can effectively stay within acceptable legal and ethical boundaries without clear established knowledge beforehand. This course, Ethical and Legal Issues in Couple and Family Therapy, provides the necessary foundation for a promising career in family therapy without the challenges of legal or ethical mishaps.
3. Substance Abuse in Couple and Family Therapy
As noted by the experts at the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion’s HealthyPeople.gov substance abuse carries with it a cumulative and very detrimental effect that touches individuals, families, and communities alike. When it comes to family therapy approaches specifically, substance abuse also creates a whole other parameter with which the therapy provider must contend. This required course in the MFT degree, Substance Abuse in Couple and Family Therapy, will light the path for students in this important area of concern.
4. Counseling Across the Lifespan
Counseling Across the Lifespan is a required MFT course that exposes students to the many factors presented by age in family counseling situations. Here, students will learn about how age affects attitudes, goals, familial positions and interactions, external hierarchies, and even legalities and ethical models in the counseling approach. The material taught here will also parallel and even overlap with much of the other coursework found in the MFT degree.
5. Diversity in Couple and Family Therapy
Finally, Diversity in Couple and Family Therapy is yet another core learning milestone along the path to earning an MFT degree. In this course, students will dive into matters of diversity in sexuality, race, religion, and other areas that all can have a very real impact on the familial dynamic. National Institutes of Health experts agree, as students will discover, that drivers such as increases in never-married, single parents, divorce, cohabitation, same-sex parenting, multi-partnered fertility, and co-residence with grandparents play a major role in the diversification of the familial structure.
Work in family therapy is an honorable and very rewarding calling. Today’s MFT degree prepares students exactly for that kind of career. These five above-mentioned courses represent a sample of the required learning objectives one will encounter along the path to MFT degree completion.