Curriculum

The Integrated Mind-Body Practices course is designed to meet the learning needs of advanced trainees who are interested in the developing medical family therapy practice skills with particular focus on somatizing patients. The course focuses on the treatment of somatoform disorders within a small group and live supervision learning environment. Course materials and readings are integrated into a skills based approach that covers the essentials of medical family therapy.

The Practice of Medical Family Therapy course focuses on skills development and integration of medical family therapy in a range of clinical settings. The teaching format is consultative, interactive, case based and specific to student learning goals.

This week long intensive blends didactic and experiential methods including looking at self-of-the-therapist issues via small group family of origin presentations to teach students how to work with families dealing with illness and how to collaborate with physicians and other health care professionals.

This course provides an overview of the major theories and clinical approaches in Marriage and Family Therapy, and complements the Foundations of Clinical Practice in Family Therapy (PSI 541) and Human Development Across the Family Life Cycle (PSI 545) courses. Students explore primary source materials as well as independently engage with current literature in the MFT field to find recent applications of the major theories.

In Ethics students will learn the AAMFT Ethical Code expectations dealing with such issues as confidentiality, dual relationships, individual and family welfare, etc. Relevant legal guidelines and professional practice standards are also reviewed. Students will also address personal issues related to the impact of values, beliefs, and culture on the practice of family therapy.

Clinical Practicum will provide matriculated students the opportunity to develop clinical practice skills in family therapy skills in one of several psychiatric and health care settings in the community. Clinical practicum consists of a broad range of supervised clinical activities. Students complete 500 client contact hours.

Clinical sites:
Family Therapy Services - Department of Psychiatry
Woman’s Health Practice
St. Joseph’s Neighborhood Center
Family Medicine Center
Monroe Community Hospital

This course prepares students for working with families through advanced readings in family therapy interviewing, role play, and videotape review of faculty and others. The course will also provide students with their first experience with supervised clinical work. Initially cases will be seen conjointly by the student and faculty and then seen in live supervision.

In this seminar students will learn traditional diagnostics and psychopathology within a systems framework. The course will enable students to approach families from a biopsychosocial systems assessment paradigm.

This course is designed to be an introduction to key concepts in human development paradigms; family life cycle theory and clinical applications; lifespan development issues within one's own family of origin experience; and relevant transgenerational theories, including Bowen, Boszormenyi-Nagy, and Framo.

This course focuses on the use of language, storytelling, metaphor and the construction of meaning in the family and in the lives of individuals. Students review literature and study perspectives on how language, lived experiences and storytelling shape people’s lives. The course concludes with a comparative review of major theories and approaches to family therapy.

This course prepares students for beginning clinical practice by increasing their practical knowledge, skills, and clinical judgment. Throughout the semester students demonstrate competencies in: clinical practice administration including informed consent and how to communicate with patients outside of session; family therapy interventions across a number of common presenting problems, including depression and anxiety; clinical documentation in the electronic health record; and how to transfer and terminate patients.

Marriage and Family Therapy trainees (MFTT's) demonstrate their ability to work collaboratively and in an informed manner with legal professionals practicing in civil and criminal justice settings (Family Law Practice Attorneys, Judges, Public Defenders, Assistant District Attorneys, Private Bar Defense Attorneys, and Police Officers). Instruction is provided through readings about court structures, legal statutes, appropriate professional conduct and collaboration when MFTT's interface with the systems mentioned above, including a review of proper chart documentation. Role-plays, simulated court appearances, field experiences (Ride-A-Long with the police, observation of court in session, interviews), report writing and live supervision, as available, constitute the content of the course. The course attends to the scopes of practice, strengths, frustrations and barriers to helping families as experienced by these various professional groups—all of which affects clinical practice.

This course is an introduction to couples therapy. The course reviews principal approaches to couples therapy for common presenting problems. Assessment, relational and systemic formulations, and treatment planning are addressed. Additionally, case discussions invite self-of-the-therapist reflection and awareness of the influence of multiple understandings of culture in the lives of the couple.

In this course students will learn the role that gender, race, ethnicity, class, sexual preference and cultural beliefs play in family development across the life cycle and in clinical practice.

This course is an introduction to quantitative and qualitative methods in family therapy research, where students learn to critically examine and utilize research findings in clinical practice. Students also review measurement techniques and treatment evaluation methods. Opportunities to build professional research writing skills and poster presentation skills are also provided.

In this course students will learn about child development including an overview of both normal and abnormal development. Students will also learn how to work with children clinically in the context of family therapy.