Students in Seattle Pacific University’s cohort-centered Marriage and Family Therapy program learn to bring cultural sensitivity to family therapy practice.

Development of competent skills occurs through an integration of self-of-the-therapist, family systems models, bio-psycho-social-spiritual perspective, and our unique ORCA-Stance. Training in a Christian context, students become instruments of healing through ethical care within diverse communities and clinical populations.

Graduates of the Master’s of Science in Marriage and Family Therapy (MS) program are prepared to demonstrate the following student-learning outcomes:

• Application of family systems theoretical models and clinical interventions to therapeutic work with diverse populations of individuals, couples, groups, and families.
• Examination of personal and professional values that are integrated into an ethical practice of psychotherapy.
• Awareness of sociocultural factors and professional trends that influence the practice of psychotherapy.

Students are assessed for competencies related to each of these student-learning outcomes, based on the professional marriage and family therapy principles as regulated by the Commission on Accreditation for Marriage and Family Therapy Education.