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POST GRADUATE PROGRAM IN COUPLES AND FAMILY THERAPY

• 2009-2010 Course Catalogue
• 2009-2010 Class Schedule

Thank you for your interest in our Program. The Post-Graduate Training Program in Couple and Family Therapy is an outgrowth of the pioneering work of Emily Mudd, Ph.D., in the field of sexual and marital counseling. In 1932, she helped found the Marriage Council of Philadelphia, which initially focused on providing women with information on birth-control. Under her direction the Marriage Council, now the Council for Relationships, became the first center in the country to establish a program to evaluate the effectiveness of counseling.

In the mid-1950's, it was one of three centers in the nation with an accredited training program for marriage counselors. Dr. Mudd was a founding member of the American Association of Marriage Counselors and presided over the organization in 1954-55. The training program initially came into existence in 1948 as part of a grant from the Department of the Navy to train its chaplains in marital counseling. As the Council grew into a full fledged couple and family therapy treatment center over the next two decades, the training program grew with it, and in 1972 received accreditation from the COAMFTE as a certificate program in marital and family therapy.

The philosophy of the program is to develop clinicians who are prepared to function on an independent level as marital and family therapists. They are expected to understand the importance of context in organizing human behavior and to possess and demonstrate the key conceptual, perceptual and intervention skills, as well as, the personal values required for sound practice. They are to be well grounded in the legal and ethical issues of the field of marital and family therapy and to be respectful of these parameters. They are to be prepared for further credentialing in the field and clinical membership in AAMFT.

The treatment and training model that guides our approach to couple, sex and family therapy is the Intersystems Model. This is an integrated multi-systems approach that attends to individual, interactional, intergeneration- al and larger systems dynamics. The model was developed by the training faculty of the Council for Relationships and has been widely published in the field of marital and family therapy literature

The program is comprised of two tracks, mental health and clergy. All trainees are expected to complete a total of 14 courses, covering the history of the field of marital and family therapy, its theoretical foundations, clinical practice, individual (child and adult) and family development, psychopathology, professional identity and ethics and research. The program has special strengths in the area of couple and sex therapy with an offering of three courses in this area. All courses include material on diversity and non-discrimination and are taught from a relational perspective In addition there is a course specifically devoted to gender and racial issues in couple and family therapy. These courses are offered on a ten week trimester basis. Most students take courses on a part-time basis and finish in three to four years.

The training program provides extensive clinical supervision with emphasis on each student developing their unique therapeutic voice. Students are assigned to individual supervisors for a six month period and are rotated throughout their time in the program. Thus they experience multiple supervisory and clinical approaches. The supervisory modalities of videotape and live-supervision are heavily emphasized with students expected to demonstrate their clinical work on a regular basis.

Please feel free to contact me directly with any questions you may have about the training program or other training opportunities at the Council for Relationships.

Bea Hollander-Goldfein, PhD
Director of Training