4757-25-01 Education requirements for admission to the examination for marriage and family therapist.

 

 

 

TO BE RESCINDED

 

4757-25-01                  Education requirements for admission to the examination for marriage and family therapist.

 

 

The requirements for licensure are generally set forth in section 4757.30 of the Revised Code.

 

(A)   Pertaining to the educational requirements, the board further describes: A "graduate degree in marriage and family therapy" is defined as a degree that meets all of the following criteria:

 

(1)   The program or concentration must clearly be identified as marriage and family therapy. Such a program must specify in pertinent institutional catalogues and brochures its intent to educate and train marriage and family therapists.

 

(2)   The marriage and family therapy curriculum must stand as a recognized entity within the institution and have a marriage and family therapy faculty.

 

(3)   The marriage and family therapy coursework completed must be an organized course of study that includes at least one graduate course in each of these seven areas of marriage and family therapy:

 

(a)      Marriage and family studies: Courses in this area should present a fundamental introduction to marriage and family studies. The student should learn to think across a wide variety of family structures and a diverse range of issues (i.e. gender, culture, and substance abuse). Topic areas may include but not limited to: family development, subsystems, blended families, gender issues in families, cultural issues in families.

 

(b)      Systems theory: Courses in this area should address the historical development, theoretical and empirical foundations, and contemporary conceptual directions of the field of marriage and family therapy.

 

(c)    Research: Courses in this area should assist the student in understanding and performing research. Topic areas may include: research methodology, qualitative and quantitative methods, and statistics.

 

(d)    Professional ethics: Courses in this area must include the "American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy" (AAMFT) code of ethics, confidentiality and liabilities of clinical practice and research, professional ethics as a marriage and family therapist, professional socialization, and the role of the professional organization, licensure or certification  legislation,  independent  practice  and  inter  professional

 

 

cooperation. Religious ethics courses and moral theology courses do not meet this requirement.

(e)    Human development: Courses in this area should provide knowledge of personality development and its normal and abnormal manifestations. The student should have relevant coursework in human development across the lifespan, which includes special issues that should be integrated with systems concepts. Topic areas may include but are not limited to: human development, psychopathology, personality theory, human sexuality. Test and measurement courses do not meet this requirement.

(f)  Appraisal of individuals and families: Courses in this area shall include the framework for understanding the individual, couple and family group, psychological and educational testing, and the study of ethnic, cultural and gender factors. Course content will address from a relational/systemic perspective, psychopharmacology, physical health and illness, traditional psycho diagnostic categories, and the assessment and treatment of major mental and emotional disorders.

(g)    Practicum: Includes a supervised training experience acceptable to the board consisting of the provision of marriage and family therapy to clients.

(i)    Minimum twelve months, supervised clinical practicum with three hundred hours of direct contact with individuals, couples, and families.

(ii)    Fifty percent of the three hundred hours must be with couples and families present. This requirement may be completed during masters or doctorate degree.

(iii)       Applicants who did not complete a clinical practicum may document this requirement with their first three hundred post-graduate client contact hours, supervised by a clinical member of "American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy" (AAMFT), graduate faculty supervisor, or by an alternate supervisor accepted by the AAMFT approved by the board.

(iv)    Prior to the beginning of the acceptable practicum student must have completed a course in marriage and family therapy and marriage and family studies.

(4)     The marriage and family therapy coursework completed must include four courses in marriage and family therapy. Courses in this area should have a major focus on advanced marital or family systems and systemic therapeutic interventions. This area is intended to provide a substantive understanding of the major theories of systems change and the applied practices evolving from each theoretical orientation. Major theoretical approaches include but are not limited to: strategic, structural, object relations, behavioral, intergenerational, and systemic sex therapy.

(5)      Programs that are accredited by the "Commission On Accreditation Of Marriage And Family Therapy Education" (COAMFTE) will have met all of the conditions specified in paragraphs (A)(1) to (A)(4) of this rule are recognized as meeting the requirements for a graduate degree in marriage and family therapy.

(6)    Programs not accredited by the "Commission On Accreditation Of Marriage And Family Therapy Education" (COAMFTE) listed in paragraph (A)(5) of this rule must be approved by this board as meeting the educational requirements for admission to the examination for the marriage and family therapy license. Program approval may be obtained by submitting to the board written evidence that the degree meets the requirements set forth in paragraphs (A)(1) to (A)(4) of this rule.

(B)    Applicants with other graduate degrees that contain sixty semester hours or ninety quarter hours must submit written evidence that the degree program and any additional coursework meet standards that are equivalent to a graduate degree in marriage and family therapy set forth in paragraphs (A)(3) and (A)(4) of this rule.

(C)     Applicants who are denied admission to the examination will be afforded an opportunity for a hearing pursuant to Chapter 119. of the Revised Code.

Effective:                                                     01/10/2008

R.C. 119.032 review dates:                         10/03/2007

CERTIFIED ELECTRONICALLY

Certification

12/31/2007

Date

Promulgated Under:                           119.03

Statutory Authority:                           4757.10

Rule Amplifies:                                  4757.30

Prior Effective Dates:                         4-10-04