Counseling Psychology with concentration in Marriage and Family Therapy

Overview

The Counseling Psychology with concentration in Marriage and Family Therapy program offered by University of San Francisco upholds values of equity, social justice, community and cultural wealth, and collaborative problem solving.

Graduates with Counseling Psychology program with a concentration in Marriage and Family Therapy from University of San Francisco will be able to:

• Develop a practice of cultural self-awareness and reflectiveness that critically evaluates how one’s beliefs, values, behaviors, personal experiences and cultural context affect one’s approach towards providing mental health treatment with clients of diverse backgrounds, belief systems, and relationship constellations.

• Identify the ways in which the surrounding socio-political, historical, and cultural contexts impact the mental health experiences of individuals and communities of diverse identities and cultural backgrounds.

• Conceptualize psychopathology and psychiatric diagnosis in a way that recognizes the impact of environmental variables, social norms, cultural values, physiological and biological determinants, and relationship dynamics as variables that influence the presence of pathology.

• Develop foundational crisis assessment and intervention strategies that promote stabilization, utilize community resources and strengths, and respects clients’ unique cultural, developmental, mental health needs.

• Understand concepts of psychological trauma, including the range of traumatic experiences, symptomatology, and issues related to diagnosis, developmental impacts, and counseling treatment.

• Explore and analyze power, privilege, and marginalization, as it relates to therapy practice, through multiple perspectives, worldviews, and epistemologies