Marriage and Family Therapy is an approach to mental health care, which seeks to help people within the context of their families and their relationships, using family systems theories and interventions. Its practitioners hold a common assumption that if the individual is to change, the context must change. Therefore, the unit of treatment is no longer the person, even if only a single person is in treatment. It is the overall context of the client’s life and the set of relationships in which the person is embedded that is addressed as part of the treatment.

The Marriage and Family Therapy program is a 60-credit hour degree that can be completed within four years on a part-time basis, or within three years on a full-time basis. The required courses (57 credits) fulfill the educational requirements for licensure in the state of Pennsylvania (and most other states) as well as for clinical membership in the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy. Students complete the additional 3 credits for the 60-credit degree by choosing one elective course. Refer to the Curriculum for more information.

The MFT program progresses from a knowledge base of core courses in systems theory to a sequence of skills courses in assessment and intervention, to actual clinical practice, completed in a 12-month clinical placement (i.e., Internship) in the final year. La Salle’s MFT degree prepares students for licensure as marriage and family therapists (LMFT) in Pennsylvania and most other states and for employment in many professional settings. Upon graduation from the program, students meet the education eligibility requirement the national exam for licensure. The MFT degree also is excellent preparation for those students planning to pursue doctoral studies in marriage and family therapy or a related field.