Welcome to Marriage and Family Therapy Program

MARRIAGE AND FAMILY THERAPY
PRE-PROFESSIONAL GRADUATE CERTIFICATE PROGRAM

The Graduate Certificate Program in Marriage and Family Therapy is an interdisciplinary program involving the School of Social Work, the College of Education, and the College of Family and Consumer Sciences for graduate students interested in the applied field of marriage and family therapy.  This certificate program has been in existence for more than twenty years and enables students from all three programs to deepen their knowledge of clinical practice with families from family systems and postmodern theoretical perspectives.

While the certificate program is not intended to provide all the training necessary to enable  students to function as independent professionals nor to meet all the requirements for (a) state licensure as a marriage and family therapist or (b) clinical membership in the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy, it does provide a foundation to prepare students for clinical practice and to undertake further supervised clinical training in their discipline as well as in the field of marriage and family therapy.  The Certificate Program attempts to meet the course requirements, but not the practicum requirements for licensure in Georgia as a marriage and family therapist. 

There are many courses within the MSW curriculum that may count towards the course requirements of the MFT Certificate program.  Other graduate courses that may be used to fulfill requirements for the certificate program are offered in several units of the University of Georgia including the School of Social Work, the Department of Child and Family Development, the Department of Counseling and Human Development, and Department of Psychology, and Department of Educational Psychology. 

Any UGA MSW student who plans to follow  the clinical track in their concentration year is eligible to apply for the certificate.  It is important for interested students to confer early in their program with their advisor and/or the School of Social Work’s MFT Coordinator to plan their program of study in order to fulfill the requirements of the certificate program.  Once this has been done, students submit an application to the Coordinator of the Faculty of Marriage and Family Therapy.  The certificate will be awarded upon completion of the certificate requirements and completion of the MSW program.

For interested MSW students seeking further information, please contact Dr. Nancy R. Williams, SSW MFT Coordinator, 219 Tucker Hall, nwilliam@uga.edu .