Courses
The Marriage and Family Therapy certificate requires 7 Courses from below:
Ethics in Marriage & Family Therapy (3 hours)
This course is designed to provide knowledge necessary for legal and ethical issues that confront practice. Students entering the course should have advanced knowledge of assessment, intervention, and evaluation of couples and families. This course provides knowledge of the legal responsibilities to clients, community, and the profession. Students will consider the influence of social institutions, values, and policies on families. Knowledge of regulations and laws that govern practice and their application to families is stressed as well as the importance of personal and professional development.
Human Sexuality (3 hours)
This course provides students with a multidisciplinary approach to human sexuality. Students will have the opportunity to explore views, experiences, values, and beliefs and how these impact the clients whom they serve along with the societal and cultural issues that may impact upon clients of social work and other mental health professionals.
Sociology of the Family (3 hours)
The intent of this course is to provide a knowledge base in institutional and historical aspects of the family. This will constitute a background for the training of students in Marriage and Family Therapy, a program fundamentally oriented to clinical and therapeutic skills in preparation for professional level counseling.
Intergenerational Family Therapy (3 hours)
This course is designed to provide students with in-depth knowledge about how families operate across generations. Based on the concepts of Murray Bowen, this course will explore the theory and its application. Students will explore the theory’s development both past and present and develop knowledge as to its application. Students will be able to understand ways to conceptualize family problems, learn assessment and intervention techniques, and examine the applicability of the Bowen theory to various family forms and the cultural context in which families operate.
Diversity & Oppression (3 hours)
Ethnic, racial, gender issues as related to social policy, human behavior and the social environment, practice issues; developmental, socioeconomic factors influencing gender roles; historical considerations and cultural and social context for social work practice among oppressed persons, people of color.
An overview of marriage and family therapy theories. Examination of the influence of family forms on family functioning. Multiple-client interviewing; treatment of children; emphasis on integration, evaluation of knowledge, skills within disciplined attitude necessary for the profession.
Family Life Cycle (3 hours)
Focus on the theoretical underpinnings of the many and varied life cycles families experience. Particular emphasis will be placed on cultural influences and populations at risk.
Couples Treatment (3 hours)
Couples Treatment is a course designed to apply principles of family therapy theory to couples work. Case formulation will be based on an understanding of personality theory, general systems theory, and attachment theory. Students will be challenged to consider differences and similarities between individual and family therapy in relation to couple’s therapy. Emphasis will be on the integration of knowledge and skills. Each student will be challenged to become increasingly aware of relational issues in her or his own life and demonstrate an understanding of how this affects treatment outcomes. Couple functioning will be explored in relation to culture, race, religion, and power differentials. Structural and functional variables will be considered.
LifeSpan Development (3 hours)
This course covers human development during infancy, early childhood, middle and later childhood, adolescence, early adulthood, middle adulthood, and late adulthood. The course examines the sequence and underlying processes of human development, while emphasizing the interrelatedness of all domains—physical, cognitive, emotional, social—throughout the course. The course will emphasize the lifespan perspective as it looks at human development, and will employ the ecological perspective while examining the interplay between biology and environment, as well as culture and social issues in human development.
Domestic Violence (3 hours)
This course will provide an overview of conceptual models of violence, current research, and social work practice issues used in addressing domestic violence. While the primary focus will be on violence against women and the physical and sexual abuse of children, populations disproportionately affected by interpersonal violence, there will also be discussion of elder abuse, dating violence, lesbian/gay battering, and prevention.
Family Mediation (3 hours)
This course focuses on the unique skills needed to work with families undergoing change and experiencing conflict situations. Students will learn how to screen for domestic abuse, address family dynamics and understand financial issues in divorce. During the course, students will also be exposed to a range of other family conflicts. This course meets the training requirements of the Arkansas Alternative Dispute Resolution Commission for inclusion on their family mediation roster. There are additional requirements. Please refer to the ADR Commission website for full details.