Marriage, Couple, and Family Counseling (MCFC) Concentration

Frequently Asked Questions

• Why should I consider taking the MCFC degree track?

  If you think you may want to work with couples or families in the future, in addition to individuals, this degree track provides the appropriate training for working with clients in a systemic way. If you are planning to work with children, you should strongly consider this track, as you will also need to work with their parents through parent consultations and possibly couples or family counseling.

• Should I get my LMFT and LPC or just one license?

  This is probably the most often asked question by MCFC students. First, ask yourself this question, "How do you want to be identified as a professional?" If you want people to know that you have specific training in working with individuals, couples, and families, then having an LMFT is ideal. If you want people to know that you have training working with clinical mental health issues then the LPC is the best option. Many MCFC students work toward both licenses, so that they have a professional identity as both an LMFT and LPC.

• Can I work with couples and families if I don't take the MCFC track?

  The real issue with this question is competence. The American Counseling Association Code of Ethics (C.2) maintains that counselors are responsible for having competence in their field. This means that all counselors, whether they are LPCs or LMFTs, must have sufficient knowledge, skills, practice, and supervision to work with different populations.

  The MCFC track provides 270 hours (4 courses) of MCFC-related course work and supervision in all four clinical classes in order to help students develop competence to work with couples and families. The Clinical Mental Health Counseling (CMHC) track requires one MCFC theories course and does not specify any amount of clinical training or supervision in working with couples and families. So CMHC students would need additional training and supervision in working with couples and families in order to develop competence.

• Does the MCFC track prepare me to become a Registered Play Therapist (RPT)?

  First of all, you chose a great program if you're interested in becoming a play therapist! We offer several play therapy-related courses and we even have our own Institute for Play Therapy (see below).

  Practitioners who would like to become a Registered Play Therapist (RPT) must meet RPT requirements set out by the Association for Play Therapy. This includes 150 hours of play therapy training, 35 hours of supervision by an RPT-Supervisor, and 350 direct play therapy hours with children. Practitioner can earn training and clinical hours for the RPT during their graduate program and as an LMFT-Associate or LPC-Associate, but cannot apply to become an RPT until they have earned a clinical license, such as an LPC or LMFT.

  The MCFC track has one class, COUN 5369 - Child & Adolescent Counseling Methods, that provides 50 hours of training in play therapy. If MCFC students would like additional training in play therapy, we encourage them to take COUN 5373 - Intermediate Methods in Play Therapy as an elective. This course provides a strong foundation for working as a play therapist and also provides 67.5 hours of play therapy training.

  Students can also participate in play therapy training before and after graduation through:

  • Texas State University Institute for Play Therapy
  • Texas Association for Play Therapy Annual Conference
  • Association for Play Therapy

• What is the difference between CACREP and COAMFTE accreditation?

  There are two entities who accredit MCFC programs: CACREP and COAMFTE. Our MCFC program is accredited by CACREP. Here's a little about each organization:

  CACREP

  The Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Education Programs (CACREP) is an organization that accredits graduate-level counseling programs. They offer accreditation for professional counseling programs with several specialization areas, including Marriage, Couple, and Family Counseling (MCFC), Clinical Mental Health (CMH), and School Counseling (SC). Since our program offers all three of these degree tracks, we chose for our MCFC program to be accredited through CACREP so that we follow a consistent set of standards for all of our degree tracks.

  COAMFTE

  The Commission on Accreditation for Marriage and Family Therapy Education (COAMFTE) is an organization that accredits marriage and family therapy education programs. COAMFTE's mission is to promote best practices in marriage and family education. This entails programs to:

  • have the majority of courses focused on working with couples and families
  • require students to complete a minimum of 500 direct client contact hours (our program currently only requires 240 direct hours)
  • maintain faculty who are Licensed Marriage and Family Therapists (LMFT) and are LMFT-approved supervisors

  These are great standards, but our program would need to make big changes to have these COAMFTE requirements in place.

  Our counseling program believes that the CACREP standards are currently the best fit for our MCFC degree track, because they allow us to provide quality MCFC training in MCFC-focused courses and throughout the clinical sequence.