2007-2008 Academic Catalog

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• Counseling Course Descriptions
• COUN (Counseling)
• MMFT (Marriage and Family Therapy)
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• PSYX (Psychology)
• Graduate Counseling Programs

MMFT (Marriage and Family Therapy) Course Descriptions

MMFT 500 Introduction to Marriage and Family Therapy
3 hours. An examination of key concepts in marital and family systems, including the family life cycle, as well as an introduction to various approaches to marital and family therapy. Core counseling skills as used in systems therapy will be taught and practiced. Prevention services as well as the roles of ethnicity and culture will be studied.

MMFT 514 Advanced Marriage Therapy I
3 hours. This course is intended to equip the student to work more effectively with couples. Attention is given to understanding and assessing the couple as an interacting system, treatment planning, developing and maintaining therapeutic balance, as well as acquiring and practicing specific skills and frameworks for system intervention.
Prerequisites: MMFT 500 Introduction to Marriage and Family Therapy or its equivalent and the permission of the instructor.

MMFT 524 Advanced Family Therapy I
3 hours. A course concentrating on utilizing the interactional/systemic perspective in counseling with families. Attention is given to the acquisition and practice of family therapy skills and procedures, the development of an integrated approach to working with families, and the impact of culture and ethnicity in family counseling.
Prerequisites: MMFT 500 Introduction to Marriage and Family Therapy and MMFT 514 Advanced Marriage Therapy I or their equivalent and the permission of the instructor.

MMFT 534 Human Sexuality
3 hours. Aspects of ourselves as sexual people will be addressed in terms of anatomy and physiology, identity, intimacy, values, attitudes, and relationships with others and with the creator of sex. Sexuality will be viewed in the context of marriage and family as well as in the larger cultural milieu. Also addressed is how therapists can recognize and properly deal with their own sexual feelings that arise in the helping relationship. In addition, students have an introduction to sexual therapy and its role in therapeutic process.

MMFT 554 Substance Abuse From a Systemic Perspective
3 hours. This course examines the nature and prevalence of alcohol and drug abuse and addiction, as well as the impact chemical addictions have on individuals, marriages, and families. Various treatment approaches are examined, including systemic, psychodynamic, behavioral, and self-help models in order to prepare the entry-level therapist to effectively intervene in families that have been impacted by substance abuse/addictions either presently or in the past.
Prerequisites: MMFT 500 Introduction to Marriage and Family Therapy or its equivalent and the permission of the instructor.

MMFT 574 Relationship Assessment
3 hours. An examination of various relationship assessment devices and their role in the assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of couples and families. Assessment of premarital, marital, parenting, and family systems is considered. Participants are trained in the administration and clinical application of five standardized inventories. Students also will examine how their theoretical orientation informs their assessment methodology.
Prerequisites: MMFT 500 Introduction to Marriage and Family Therapy or its equivalent and the permission of the instructor. Student should be enrolled in MMFT 592 or MMFT 593 Clinical Internship concurrently with enrollment in this course.

MMFT 580 Play Therapy
3 hours. This course will cover an introduction to the theory and practice of play therapy as a primary therapeutic approach when working with children in individual and family psychotherapy. The course is designed to prepare the student to effectively provide developmentally appropriate counseling for children, focusing on the development of a therapist-child relationship and utilization of play media in the systemic counseling process as a means to facilitate expression, self-understanding, and personal growth and development. Students will become familiar with play therapy theory techniques, therapeutic stages, ethical issues, and application. Observation of and experience in play therapy are an integral part of the course.
Prerequisites: MMFT 500 Introduction to Marriage and Family Therapy or its equivalent and the permission of the instructor.

MMFT 583 Filial Therapy
3 hours. This course covers an introduction to the theory and practice of filial therapy, a play-therapy-based parent-training program. Filial therapy has been shown to be an empirically effective child- and family-therapy intervention. Parents are trained by experienced play therapists to be agents of therapeutic change in their children's lives through the utilization of their basic play therapy skills. These skills are employed in regularly scheduled parent-child structured play sessions in their own homes. How to train parents in their overall principles and methodology of child-centered play therapy is addressed.
Prerequisite: MMFT 580 Play Therapy or permission of the instructor.

MMFT 585 Seminar
1-3 hours. A seminar involving a group of students with a professor studying a specially selected topic. Students are encouraged to submit suggestions for seminar topics to the department director. Such requests, as well as faculty interests and special opportunities, will be considered in arrangements for a seminar.

MMFT 590 Research/Thesis
3 hours. Conduct graduate-level research in the area of counseling psychotherapy, including study design, data collection, data analysis, and drawing inferences from data. Research design will be quantitative or qualitative, and may be experimental, theoretical, or applied. Requires two faculty readers, with at least one being a Graduate Department of Counseling faculty member, and oral and written defense before full faculty.
Prerequisites: assignment of faculty research advisor; completion of or concurrent enrollment in COUN 582 Research and Evaluation; approval of research plan from full faculty.

MMFT 591, 592, 593, 594 Clinical Internship
Supervised clinical experience in community counseling programs. Students must sign up and attend fall and spring terms concurrently with treatment planning. Summer I and II are optional. Pass/No Pass.
Prerequisites: COUN 501 Principles and Techniques of Counseling I, COUN 502 Principles and Techniques of Counseling II, plus 18 additional hours in counseling (MMFT 500 Introduction to Marriage and Family Therapy, COUN 510 Human Growth and Development, MMFT 514 Advanced Marriage Therapy I, COUN 520 Personality and Counseling Theories, MMFT 524 Advanced Family Therapy I, COUN 530 Psychopathology and Appraisal, COUN 540 Professional Orientation, and COUN 550 Group Theory and Therapy) and approved candidacy status.

Students are expected to follow the sequence MMFT 592 (4 hours), MMFT 593 (4 hours) beginning in the fall semester. Students who begin their internship in the summer will register for MMFT 591 (an additional 2 hours). Students who do not finish client hours at the end of spring (MMFT 593) will register for MMFT 594 in summer (an additional 1-2 hours). Students wishing to enroll in clinical internship must have: (a) successfully passed candidacy, (b) completed all prerequisites with a B or better grade, (c) applied for internship, and (d) attended the Internship Fair (during spring semester of that year).

MMFT 595 Special Study
1 to 3 hours. A specially designed and individually tailored course of research involving in-depth study of a particular question, problem, or issue presented by the student. The student must make application for the study prior to registration for the semester in which the study will be carried out. The application must be approved by both the faculty member overseeing the study and the department chair.

MMFT 596 Training and Supervision in Systems Therapy and Professional Counseling
2 hours. This course is designed to train experienced clinicians to provide systems therapy and professional counseling supervision. It offers partial fulfillment of American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT) Approved Supervisor educational requirements, as well as the 30-clock-hour postgraduate educational requirements of the Oregon Board of Professional Counselors and Therapists. This course is intended to assist licensed therapists to become acknowledged as systems therapy supervisors for MMFT interns.

MMFT 597 Treatment Planning I
1 hour. This course is intended to follow COUN 530 Psychopathology and Appraisal and operates in conjunction with MMFT 592-593 Clinical Internship. The student will explore comprehensive treatment planning strategies, including the development of written statements of cognitive, behavioral, and emotional symptoms; systemic processes; short-term objectives; long-term goals; and therapeutic interventions. Various therapeutic methods utilized in treatment and management of mental disorders will be presented. Pass/No Pass.

MMFT 598 Treatment Planning II
1 hour. This course is second in a series intended to follow COUN 530 Psychopathology and Appraisal and operates in conjunction with MMFT 592-593 Clinical Internship. The student will explore comprehensive treatment planning strategies, including the development of written statements of cognitive, behavioral, and emotional symptoms; systemic processes; short-term objectives; long-term goals; and therapeutic interventions. Various therapeutic methods utilized in treatment and management of mental disorders will be presented. Pass/No Pass.

MMFT 599 Graduate Clinical Project
1 hour. In this course, the student will complete the graduate clinical project (GCP). The GCP is a four-part clinical exam in which the student's perceptual, conceptual, and executive skills are evaluated as applied to an actual case example. In Part I, the student will prepare a comprehensive paper detailing his or her theory on the nature of persons and the therapeutic process. In Part II, through use of video, session transcripts, and written reflection, the student will demonstrate the application of this theory in an actual case presentation. In Part III, the student will present a three-year growth plan, along with a professional self-disclosure statement written in accordance with Oregon practice law. Finally, the student's theoretical paper, case presentation, growth plan, and professional disclosure statement will be evaluated by both a GDC faculty member and a licensed therapist from the community. Pass/No Pass. Additional course fee is required.