Students must meet the requirements for admission to the doctoral program with a major in Family and Child Ecology. The MFT specialization has a limited enrollment and admits students once a year during fall semester. The specialization is designed to meet the academic and clinical training requirements of the Commission on Accreditation for Marriage and Family Therapy Education. Students who wish to seek licensure as a Marriage and Family Therapist in the State of Michigan, or any other state, should plan their program to meet current academic and clinical requirements of that state.

All students complete a Plan B master's degree specializing in MFT unless they enter the FCE program already with a master's degree in MFT. A maximum of nine semester credits of previous course work comparable to the content required in the program may be transferred into a student's master's degree curriculum. Collateral course work may be required in addition to the required standard curriculum, depending on the student's previous academic course work. Students are expected to carry a minimum of two academic courses and five to ten clinical hours each semester, including the summer semester.

Throughout the first year, clinical faculty meet and discuss the progress of each intern and the intern's readiness to begin clinical work in the Family and Child Clinic with families. Interns usually begin clinical work in the clinic in the spring or summer semester of their first year unless evaluated as needing additional clinical skill preparation. Students are expected to complete 500 direct client contact hours of therapy and 100 hours of supervision during their master's work. These hours are completed in the Family and Child Clinic and in various off-campus clinical sites approved by the clinical faculty. Students with previous clinical experience may apply for a waiver of client contact hours and supervision hours if their previous clinical experience meets specific criteria. Live and video supervision are the primary modes of supervision.

Continual academic and clinical involvement is required in the doctoral phase of the MFT specialization.  At the conclusion of their 9 month internship students will have acquired a minimum of 1000 client contact hours (at least 50% being relational hours) and 100 supervision hours.  A dissertation related to the field of marriage and family therapy is completed after successfully concluding the doctoral comprehensive exams.

Marriage and Family Therapy, Department of Family & Child Ecology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan 48824.
Contact Dr.Marsha Carolan for further information