Master of Science in Clinical Mental Health Counseling with an Emphasis in Marriage and Family Therapy
Overview
Become a Family and Marriage Therapy Counselor
Grand Canyon University’s Master of Science in Clinical Mental Health Counseling with an Emphasis in Marriage and Family Therapy degree program at the College Humanities and Social Sciences is for students interested in pursuing a career in marriage and family counseling. The program provides you with the knowledge and skills necessary to identify, assess and address marriage and family-related issues, including communication issues, parent-child relationships, different family dynamics and couples’ issues.
Degree Outcomes
Work Toward Family and Marriage Licensure
Graduates of this master’s degree program will be competent in applying counseling theories to the treatment of couples and families and discussing how the perceptions of families have changed over time. Students will know how to determine how a person’s family of origin affects their future relationships and analyze the influence of substance use and addictive disorders on couples and families. After finishing the master’s program, students can apply for national certification.
What You Will Learn
Counsel Families and Struggling Couples
In the masters in clinical mental health counseling with an emphasis in marriage and family therapy degree program, you will study the fundamentals of professional counseling, advanced family systems and the dynamics of couples and families, including:
- The dynamic processes of traditional and nontraditional family and couple relationships
- The role, value and benefits of family systems therapy
- The foundational development of marriage and family therapy
- The dynamics of the parent-child relationship, family of origin influences and partner selection
- Skills and techniques relevant to couples, premarital counseling, family therapy, parenting and lifestyle transitions
Career Outcomes
Address Marriage and Family-Related Issues
Graduates of this master’s degree program will be able to pursue marriage and family licensure in order to professionally counsel families and couples in a private practice or clinical setting.
Program DomainsProgram Core Courses
Course Description
This course is designed as an orientation for the graduate learning experience at Grand Canyon University. Students have opportunities to develop and strengthen the skills necessary to succeed as graduate students in counseling. Emphasis is placed on utilizing the tools for graduate success.
Course Description
This course provides a broad understanding of counseling ethics, legal standards, and responsibilities, including professional identity, report writing, record keeping, and service reimbursement for professional and substance use disorder counselors. Also covered are the history of and current trends in counseling. Important goals of this course are to help students develop a strong personal and professional ethic, as well as an appreciation of the value of professional collaboration and identity.
Course Description
This course provides a comprehensive survey of the major counseling theories and principles. Coursework includes the following theories: psychoanalytic, Adlerian, existential psychotherapy, behavioral, cognitive behavioral, person-centered, reality therapy/choice theory, and rational emotive behavioral therapy (REBT).
Course Description
This course provides a broad understanding of the stages, processes, and effects of substance use disorders, social and psychological dynamics of substance use disorders, and the professional's role in prevention, intervention, and aftercare, including recovery and relapse prevention. This course explores theories and models of treatment of substance use disorders, drug classification, and assessment. It also continues building foundational knowledge, utilization of professional resources, and exploration of standards to help students prepare for licensure/certification within the counseling industry.
Course Description
This course provides a broad understanding of counseling processes, including characteristics and behaviors that influence the helping processes. Included are age, gender, ethnic differences, verbal and nonverbal behaviors, personal characteristics, and orientations. The development of counseling techniques is emphasized, including establishing and maintaining the counseling relationship; diagnosing and identifying the problem; formulating a preventative, treatment, or rehabilitative plan; facilitating appropriate interventions; and successfully terminating the counseling relationship.
Course Description
This course provides a broad understanding of issues and trends in a multicultural and diverse society. Studies in this area include the following: attitudes and behaviors based on such factors as age, race, religious preference, physical disability, sexual orientation, ethnicity and culture, family patterns, gender, socioeconomic status and intellectual ability; individual, family, group, and community strategies for working with diverse populations; theories of multicultural counseling and identity development; multicultural competencies; and issues such as substance use disorders. Students examine a variety of cultural populations in multiple regions of the United States, exploring issues and trends that are associated with each population. Cultural considerations for immigrants, refugees, and undocumented citizens are also addressed.
Course Description
This course provides a broad understanding of group development, group dynamics, group counseling theories, and ethical standards with reference to professional and substance use disorders counseling. The course addresses group process components, appropriate selection criteria, developmental stage theories, group members’ roles and behaviors; and group leadership styles and approaches. The course includes didactic and experiential group learning. Required synchronous group experience: 12 hours.
Course Description
This course introduces students to the basic principles of psychopharmacology and the effects of psychoactive substances. Students examine the behavioral, psychological, physiological and social effects of psychoactive substance use, and learn to recognize symptoms of intoxication, withdrawal, and toxicity. The class covers various screening options, limitations, legal implications, and the utilization of pharmacotherapy as part of substance addiction treatment.
Course Description
This course is divided into two distinct and separate sections. The first part of the course examines human sexuality and systems of sexual therapy. Psychological, biological, social, and moral perspectives on sexual development and functioning are also examined. The last part of the course provides an understanding of the nature of aging and the elderly. Theories and strategies for facilitating optimum care of the elderly are addressed. Elder abuse, dependent adult abuse, and neglect of the aging and elderly are explored. Sexuality, mental health, physical health, the role of substance use disorders, and family issues are also addressed.
Course Description
This course provides an understanding of the nature, needs, and differing abilities of individuals at all developmental levels. Theories of individual and family development, transitions across the life span, theories of learning, theories of personality development, and ethical and cultural strategies for facilitating optimum development over the life span are addressed.
Course Description
This course provides a broad understanding of the structure and dynamics of the family, which may include assessment and methods of marital and family intervention and counseling.
Course Description
This eight-topic course is divided into three distinct and separate sections. The first three topics examine crisis intervention and trauma counseling; Theories and strategies of trauma counseling and facilitating crisis interventions are also addressed. The second three topics examine spousal or partner abuse assessment, detection, and intervention strategies. The legal and ethical issues, the role of substance use disorders, and children in families where domestic violence and abuse occur are also addressed. The last two topics examine child abuse assessment and reporting. Legal and ethical issues and specific California child abuse assessment and reporting codes are also examined.
Course Description
This course provides an introduction to basic tests and appraisal in counseling. Individual and group approaches to testing, assessment, evaluation, behavioral observations, computer-managed and computer-assisted methods are addressed. The following statistical concepts are also addressed: scales of measurement, measures of central tendency, indices of variability, shapes and types of distributions, correlations, reliability, and validity.
Course Description
This course provides a broad understanding of career development and related life factors including psychotherapy, career counseling techniques and processes, career development theories, decision-making models, issues of diversity, and interrelationships between work and family.
Course Description
This course introduces research methods and basic statistical analysis, including the following: the importance of research, opportunities for research, and difficulties in conducting research. Research methods such as qualitative, quantitative, single-case designs, action research, and outcome-based research are addressed.
Course Description
This course provides a conceptual framework for the use of assessment and diagnostic tools for the development of appropriate treatment interventions for a variety of behavioral health and substance use disorders. Included is an introduction to the use of the diagnostic tools, including the DSM, and the integration of diagnostic and assessment information, in the development of treatment plans.
Course Description
This course introduces the study of mental illnesses and the science of psychopathology. The goal is to provide counseling students a conceptual understanding of psychological and behavioral dysfunction that occurs in mental illnesses. The course includes a survey of major psychiatric disorders and their causes.
Course Description
Students in this course are introduced to a variety of testing instruments used to determine a client's emotional or mental status. Assessment procedures are explored within the context of diagnosis and treatment planning. This course focuses on the administration and interpretation of individual and group standardized tests of mental ability, personality, and measurement.
Course Description
This course examines the dynamic processes of traditional and nontraditional family and couple relationships and the role, value, and benefits of family systems therapy. The biopsychosocial perspectives of family and family systems are evaluated along with the foundational development of marriage and family therapy. Assessment and treatment of couples and families are also addressed.
Course Description
This course examines the development of problems within the family of origin, and the historical and theoretical perspectives of couples and family system dynamics. It addresses the dynamics of the parent/child relationship, family of origin influences, partner selection, and premarital therapy. Family roles and interactional patterns are examined, as are parenting and changes in the parental relationships across the lifespan, resilience, and divorce. Skills and techniques relevant to couples, premarital counseling, family therapy, parenting, and lifestyle transitions are explored.
Course Description
This course examines the dynamic processes of diverse family systems, including multicultural families, blended families, same-sex parents, grandparents as primary caregivers, single-parent families, adoptive, foster, transitional families, and separated families.
Course Description
This course examines the impact of substance use and addictive disorders on family systems. Various treatment interventions are discussed. The treatment roles and responsibilities of addicted individuals and their families are also examined.
Course Description
The practicum course is a distinctly defined, supervised clinical fieldwork experience in which the student develops basic counseling skills and integrates professional knowledge under the supervision of a faculty member or an on-site clinical site supervisor approved by the college or university with a minimum of 1 hour per week of individualized and/or triadic supervision throughout the practicum. Practicum students participate in an average of 1 ½ hours per week of group supervision with a counseling faculty member or student supervisor who is under the supervision of a counselor education program faculty member on a regular schedule throughout the practicum. Documentation of a minimum requirement of 100 hours of counseling-related activities, which includes 40 direct client contact hours, is submitted to Typhon and monitored by the Office of Field Experience. The practicum is completed prior to the internship; therefore, students may not progress to CNL-664A without the required amount of hours submitted to Typhon, the required amount of individual and group supervision, and proper approval. This course has multiple synchronous required activities. Students must be prepared to be flexible in meeting the demands of this course in order to progress to the internship. Practicum/field experience hours: 100. State licensure requirements may mandate additional hours. Students must review and adhere to their state board's additional requirements. Prerequisites: Completion of all didactic coursework in the program; a GPA of 3.0 or better; and maintenance of student professional liability insurance in the amount of $1 million, $3 million.
Course Description
The internship course is a distinctly defined, supervised clinical experience in which the student refines and enhances basic counseling and student development of knowledge and skills, and integrates and authenticates professional knowledge and skills related to program objectives. The internship is performed under the supervision of an on-site clinical site supervisor approved by the college or university with an average of 1 hour per week of individualized and/or triadic supervision throughout the internship. Internship students participate in a minimum of 1 ½ hours per week of group supervision with a counseling faculty member or student supervisor who is under the supervision of a counselor education program faculty member on a regular schedule throughout the internship. Documentation of 300 hours of counseling-related activities, which includes a required minimum of 120 direct client contact hours, is submitted directly to the college’s Office of Field Experience for verification and tracking. Internship hours: A minimum of 300 total hours of which 120 is total direct hours. Students must successfully complete CNL-624 before progressing to the internship. This course has multiple synchronous required activities. Students must be prepared to be flexible in meeting the demands of this course in order to meet the internship requirements. Practicum/field experience hours: 300. State licensure requirements may mandate additional hours. Students must review and adhere to their state board's additional requirements. Prerequisites: CNL-624; a GPA of 3.0 or better; maintenance of student professional liability insurance in the amount of $1 million, $3 million; and college approval.
Course Description
The internship course is a distinctly defined, supervised clinical experience in which the student refines and enhances basic counseling and student development of knowledge and skills, and integrates and authenticates professional knowledge and skills related to program objectives. The internship is performed under the supervision of an on-site clinical site supervisor approved by the college or university with an average of 1 hour per week of individualized and/or triadic supervision throughout the internship. Internship students participate in a minimum of 1 ½ hours per week of group supervision with a counseling faculty member or student supervisor who is under the supervision of a counselor education program faculty member on a regular schedule throughout the internship. Documentation of 300 hours of counseling-related activities, which includes a required minimum of 120 direct client contact hours, is submitted directly to the college’s Office of Field Experience for verification and tracking. This course has multiple synchronous required activities. Students must be prepared to be flexible in meeting the demands of this course in order to meet the internship requirements. Practicum/field experience hours: 300. State licensure requirements may mandate additional hours. Students must review and adhere to their state board's additional requirements. Prerequisites: CNL-664A; a GPA of 3.0 or better; maintenance of student professional liability insurance in the amount of $1 million, $3 million; and college approval.
Online
Evening
* Please note that this list may contain programs that are not presently offered as program availability may vary depending on class size, enrollment and other contributing factors. If you are interested in a program listed herein please first contact your University Counselor for the most current information regarding availability of the program.
* The Department of Education defines how an institution must calculate a program's On-Time Completion rate for federal disclosure purposes. The On-Time Completion rate is based on a program's published required number of months to complete all degree requirements as provided in the institution's catalog. Completion statistics are updated every January and are based on the cohort of students who started the program in the same year and then graduated within the published program length.
Online and Evening program disclosures (55 months)* Please refer to the Academic Catalog for more information. Program subject to change.