Become a Marriage, Couple and Family Therapist/Counselor
Careers in Marriage and Family Therapy
Marriage and family therapists provide mental health prevention and clinical intervention services to individuals, couples, families and groups in a variety of settings including community mental health agencies, hospitals, and schools. As independent mental health practitioners, licensed MFTs can also offer their services through private practice.
Degree options
Both a master’s degree and a certificate in marriage and family therapy are available. Our master's degree in marriage, couple and family counseling prepares students to sit for dual licensure – both the national licensure exam to become a Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) and the national licensure exam to become a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT) in Oregon. The certificate in marriage, couple and family counseling is open to those who already have a mental health degree.
Course requirements
The master’s degree program is generally three to four years in length with 68 semester hours of course work required as a minimum for graduation. Of those hours, a minimum of 46 hours must be taken in resident study at George Fox University and each student must complete a minimum of 20 hours of personal counseling/therapy as part of the program.
Students must also complete a 700-hour supervised clinical internship in marriage and family therapy that meets the currently articulated criteria for such training, with at least 270 hours of direct client contact. 135 of those 270 direct client contact hours must be with couples and families.
The certificate program is generally one to two years in length with 38 semester hours of course work required as a minimum for graduation.
