Marriage and Family Therapy Specialization Applications open mid-August and are due January 5!

The mission of the Colorado State University Marriage and Family Therapy Program is to graduate students who successfully meet the clinical and academic training standards as guided by the COAMFTE Developmental Competency Components. Graduates will be prepared to provide ethical, multiculturally-informed, evidence-based, and systemically oriented therapeutic services for a vast population of individuals, couples, and families within a variety of professional settings, including community, academic, and policy-making settings.

The following are the program goals and student learning outcomes (SLO) associated with each goal:

Goal 1: To prepare effective Marriage and Family Therapists.

• SLO1: Students will possess the competencies necessary to successfully and ethically conceptualize cases and facilitate admission to treatment.
• SLO2: Students will possess the competencies necessary to conduct effective and ethical clinical assessments and diagnoses of clients.
• SLO3: Students will possess the competencies necessary to conduct effective and ethical treatment planning and case management.
• SLO4: Students will possess the competencies necessary to employ effective and ethical therapeutic interventions.
• SLO5: Students will possess the competencies necessary to maintain compliance with ethical, legal, and professional standards in the practice of MFT.
• SLO6: Students will receive at least 400 clinical hours during the program, 100 of which are relational.
• SLO7: Students will receive at least 100 hours of clinical supervision during the program.

Goal 2: To prepare Marriage and Family Therapists to responsibly serve diverse, marginalized, and underserved communities.

• SLO8: Students will demonstrate cultural competence in admitting clients to treatment, clinical assessment and diagnosis, treatment planning, therapeutic interventions, legal and ethical issues, and research and theory.
• SLO9: Students will provide therapeutic services in each of the CSU Centers for Counseling, Assessment, and Mentoring that expressly serve diverse, marginalized, and underserved populations.

Goal 3: To prepare students to be critical consumers of and contributors to the MFT literature.

• SLO10: Students will possess the competencies necessary to apply relevant research to their clinical practice and to evaluate their own effectiveness as therapists.
• SLO11: Students will complete a capstone research project or an original thesis research project.

The CSU MFT Program strives to create a learning environment where all students, employees, and volunteers feel valued and respected. We are committed to a nondiscriminatory approach and provide equal opportunity for education, employment, and advancement in all our academic and clinical programs. We respect and value all life experiences, backgrounds, and identities and work to ensure all voices are valued and heard.

Our program adheres to an anti-discrimination policy that shall explicitly prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, age, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, relationship status, gender identity, socioeconomic status, disability, health status, religion and spiritual beliefs and/or affiliation, and/or national origin with regard to the recruitment, admission, codes of conduct, hiring, retention, or dismissal of students, faculty, and supervisors or other relevant educators and/or staff.

CSU resources

• CSU Principles of Community
• Office of International Programs
• Office of Inclusive Excellence
• Pride Resource Center
• Women and Gender Advocacy Center
• Asian/Pacific American Cultural Center
• Black/African American Cultural Center
• El Centro
• Native American Cultural Center

Fort Collins community resources

• Fort Collins Area Community Resources – Gay Colorado
• Fort Collins Community Action Network
• Fort Collins Human Relations Commission
• Fort Collins International Center
• Fort Collins LGBTQ+ Task Force
• Islamic Center of Fort Collins
• Northern Colorado Intertribal Powwow Association, Inc.

Our program leadership has surveyed MFT alumni over the past five years to come up with the following self-identified data from graduated cohorts:

• Student data:
  • Our program has graduated 51 graduate students.
  • Gender identities reported – 37 female identifying; 11 male identifying; 2 non-binary identifying; 1 other
  • Racial identities reported: 34 White; 6 Hispanic/LatinX/Chicano; 6 Interracial; 3 Asian/Pacific Islander; 1 Other
•  Faculty data:
  • Of the core MFT faculty members, 75 percent identify as female, and 25 percent identify as male.
  • Of the core MFT faculty members, 100 percent identify as White.
• Supervisor data:
  • Of the primary clinical supervisors, 66 percent identify as female, and 33 percent identify as male.
  • Of the primary clinical supervisors, 84 percent identify as White; 8 percent identify as Asian/Pacific Islander, 8 percent identify as Black

All MFT students will take the Capstone Seminar course (HDFS693) where they will work in pairs to complete a final research project (capstone research) for the course. The work from this course will provide the groundwork for the Plan A written thesis and defense required Plan B individual project presentation that is a non-credit requirement.

Plan A: Students who choose the Thesis Plan A option will complete a thesis following the Capstone course (693) which will include a written thesis (see department requirements in the HDFS graduate handbook) and an oral defense presentation to their thesis committee. Additionally, Plan A students will sign up for a minimum of 3 thesis credits (HDFS 699) and work with their thesis advisor throughout the process of developing a written and oral thesis.”

Plan B: After the HDFS 693 course is complete, students who choose the Plan B option will individually create and deliver an oral presentation based on their part of the assignment from HDFS 693 to their Plan B project committee. This will serve as the Plan B defense, which is a non-credit requirement.