The Clinical Experience

“The clinical work here is surrounded by a supportive, close-knit team of fellow students and supervisors. You always feel there is someone to help you out as you learn and improve your therapeutic skills.” -Christina Carlson

“For my graduate assistantship, I work at the Marriage and Family Therapy Clinic. Not only has this experience given me great insight on how to effectively run a therapy office, I have also learned a great deal from my peers. Someone is always around to help you, usually using their own knowledge and expertise. We really work as a team, and learn from each other's unique experiences." - Jen Bush

Philosophy

• Clinical experience provides an understanding of individual, couple and family assessment that will equip students to observe, identify, and help change individual and relational problems.
• The practice of marital and family therapy includes a variety of approaches and methods which students explore in their clinical training.
• Coursework, supervision, and clinical experience are mutually informing in ways that help students develop and articulate their own integrated approaches to therapy.
• Clinical training prepares students to work effectively with clients who are both similar and different from themselves, as well as to promote cultural democracy and social justice.
• Students learn to use research to inform clinical practice.
• Clinical experience provides a solid cognitive and experiential grounding in both systems theory and individual diagnosis and treatment.
• Clinical training is guided by our view that the relationship between therapist and clients that is of primary importance.
• Person of the therapist development is a core component of the clinical experience.
• Supervision and collegial relationships are understood to provide a platform for each student’s evolution a clinician.

The Clinical Practicum

The clinical practicum is designed to offer a broad range of clinical experience and intensive supervision. We accomplish this first at our training clinic, the Humphrey Center for Marital and Family Therapy, where students, under the close supervision of the clinical faculty, see individuals, couples and families. It is extended through the second year practicum when the student spends one year at an external practicum site.

The standard for clinical experience and supervisions that has been adopted by our accrediting body, the COAMFTE, is that students must complete 500 hours of direct, face-to-face contact with clients, and receive 100 hours of supervision by an AAMFT Approved Supervisor or the equivalent. Finally, the 500 hours must include at least 250 relational hours.

Practicum I

The first year clinical experience begins in the first semester as the student observes sessions at the Humphrey Center, attends external functions such as an AA or ALANON meeting, complete a “ride along” with a Hartford police officer, observe a divorce action in superior court, observe a classroom at an elementary or secondary school, attend a PPT meeting, or attend a case conference meeting for an in-home intensive family treatment program.

During the second semester, students join advanced masters or doctoral students to form treatment teams at The Humphrey Center. Treatment teams consist of the treating therapist, up to 5 second semester students, and a clinical supervisor. Each team meets once a week for 2 hours to observe, discuss and participate in the treatment of a couple or family. First year students in their second semester also may begin doing co-therapy with a second year masters or doctoral student and, in some instances, assume responsibility for 2 or 3 cases of their own.

Practicum II

During their second year students spend two days, (approximately 16 to 18 hours per week) at their outside practicum site. During this time, students also carry 5 to 7 cases and spend 8 to 10 hours per week at the Humphrey Center. Students are required to complete 250 hours of direct client contact and at least 50 hours of supervision by an AAMFT Approved Supervisor at both their outside agency and the Humphrey Center for a total of 500 hours of client contact and 100 hours of supervision. 250 of the client contact hours must be relational. The practicum experience must span over a minimum of 12 months. (See the program handbook for additional information.)

Although the Commission on Accreditation for Marriage and Family Therapy Education (COAMFTE) requires that students receive at least 100 hours of face-to-face supervision during the course of their masters degree, students in our program receive approximately 150 hours of supervision through the Humphrey Center in addition to the supervision (typically 100 – 150 hours) received at their external practicum site.

Selection of Practicum II Sites

In their second semester, students complete an interviewing process that enables them to select, and be selected by, an outside practicum site. These sites include community mental health centers, an inpatient substance abuse program, an outpatient medical clinic, a partial hospital program for adolescents and a residential treatment facility for children.

The process for matching students with agencies begins at in the second or third week of January. Supervisors from the outside agencies attend a luncheon with students and clinical faculty at the Humphrey Center. At this luncheon, practicum supervisors present and discuss information about their agencies. Students are then given an opportunity to schedule appointments to meet for group interviews at sites which interest them. A listing of our current practicum sites may be found in the program handbook.

After on-site interviews are completed, students are asked to provide the practicum coordinator with a list of her/his top three preferences. The outside supervisors also are contacted for their preferences. The practicum coordinator and the program director make the matches and notify students of their sites by the end of April.