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Marriage and Family Therapy

Dyane Watson, Chair, 315-443-6170, dkwatson@syr.edu
Peck Hall, 601 E. Genesee Street

Faculty

Deborah Coolhart, Thom deLara, Rashmi Gangamma, Linda Stone Fish, Dyane Watson

Staff

Graduate Program

The Department of Marriage and Family Therapy offers Master of Arts (M.A.) and Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) degrees in marriage and family therapy. Students gain a solid knowledge of marriage and family therapy theory and techniques. Students receive extensive hands-on training, both at the Couple and Family Therapy Center, a clinical training and research facility, and at local community sites. The faculty seeks to promote the advancement of the practice and profession of marriage and family therapy through scholarly research, education, training, and clinical practice.

The department also offers a Certificate of Advanced Study (CAS) in Trauma-Informed Practice and Child Therapy. The CAS in Trauma-Informed Practice is structured for clinicians, mental health professionals, and practitioners from allied disciplines to expand their knowledge and skills in the field of trauma response and intervention. Trauma-informed practice is based on an understanding of the vulnerabilities or triggers of trauma survivors that traditional service delivery approaches may exacerbate so that these services and programs can be more supportive and avoid re-traumatization.

The Certificate of Advanced Study (CAS) in Child Therapy is available for graduate students, clinicians, mental health professionals, and practitioners from allied disciplines who wish to expand their knowledge and skills in clinical practice with children and their families or care-givers.

Dual M.S.W./M.A. program in Social Work and Marriage and Family Therapy

Please note that effective Fall 2018, students will initially apply to either the MSW or MA program only, with admission to the Dual MSW/MA program at the end of year one via an internal admission process.

The interdisciplinary program allows students to complete degrees in two distinct professions, the Social Work, MSW and the Marriage and Family Therapy, MA in three years. The dual degree exposes students to the philosophical and legal distinctions of both degrees, creates a unique opportunity for MSW students to deepen their clinical training with couples and families, and introduces MFT students to a broader range of social work and social welfare course offerings, as well as the art of clinical diagnosis which is in the scope of practice of the Social Work profession.

The dual degree is offered as both a 96-credit, three -year program (for students not admitted to the Advanced Standing MSW program), or a 78-credit two-year program (for students admitted to the MSW Advanced Standing program), both of which must be pursued fulltime.

The program extends the advanced clinical preparation of the MSW to include an additional year of intensive MFT clinical supervision. It combines the MSW ability to work with systems of all sizes with the more singular focus on families by MFT.

Facilities

The department is housed with the Couple and Family Therapy Center, a clinical training and research site at Peck Hall, 601 E. Genesee Street, Syracuse. The center is equipped for live and digitally recorded supervision. Individual, group, couple, and family therapy are offered to members of the Syracuse community by marriage and family therapy graduate students under the supervision of the clinical faculty who operate from a family systems perspective.

Programs

• Marriage and Family Therapy, MA

• Marriage and Family Therapy, PhD

• Social Work and Marriage and Family Therapy Dual Degree, MA/MSW

• Child Therapy, CAS
• Trauma-Informed Practice, CAS

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