In Oregon, there are many steps to becoming a licensed marriage and family therapist (LMFT). The first step in working toward licensure is to complete a graduate degree in this field. The degree must be accredited and include a clinical field experience with at least 700 hours of work. Of those hours, 280 must be in direct contact with clients.
Fortunately, Oregon has an abundance of graduate-level marriage and family programs to choose from that satisfy the requirements above. Whether you want to study at a large public university, a small private college, or something in between, Oregon has you covered!
We’ve compiled a list of popular Oregon programs to help you jumpstart your higher education. Read about each program below to decide which option best suits your needs.
Marriage and Family Therapy Programs in Oregon
Listed below are some of the popular schools offering marriage and family therapy programs in Oregon:
- University of Oregon
- Oregon Institute of Technology
- George Fox University
- Portland State University
- Northwestern University
- Walden University
- National University
- Pepperdine University
- Capella University
University of Oregon
Master of Science in Couples and Family Therapy
The Master of Science in Couples and Family Therapy at the University of Oregon uses a cohort model to ensure you have the most support during your schooling. Each cohort is small–just 22-24 students–so you’ll benefit from small class sizes and ample opportunities to develop professional relationships with your classmates.
This program also offers superb instruction from professors who are experienced in clinical work. Beyond that, faculty members are actively involved in research in areas related to marriage and family therapy. Each core faculty member has also received numerous awards for teaching.
You must earn at least 90 quarter credits to complete this degree. Most students who enroll in the program complete these requirements in two years of full-time studies. Doing so enables you to get the training you need quickly so you can graduate and begin the postgraduate supervision work necessary to earn a full LMFT license in Oregon.
A large portion of the curriculum focuses on the theoretical foundations of marriage and family therapy. For example, Introduction to Couples and Family Therapy offers a broad look at historical and modern areas of this discipline. As another example, the Systems Theory Foundations course focuses on macro theories of marriage and family therapy and their usage in clinical settings. In particular, this class examines systems theories, ecological theories, and communications.
Another crucial theoretical foundation course is Counseling Skills. This class is a mix of coursework and experiential learning opportunities. In other words, you’ll acquire an understanding of counseling skills through guided lectures with your professors, and then have opportunities to practice those skills in role-playing situations with your classmates.
Another significant portion of this curriculum focuses on individual and family development. This sequence of courses includes Parenting Interventions coursework, which takes a close look at evidence-based practices for improving parenting skills. More specifically, you’ll learn trauma-focused parenting strategies for working with children and adolescents from birth to 18.
Intimate Partner Therapy is another interesting class focusing on individual and family development. It examines how to apply systems theory to problems that arise between intimate partners and focuses on finding solutions that enable the couple to move forward toward a more positive and fulfilling relationship. You’ll learn how to conduct assessments, motivate change, and process feelings and emotions with couples, too.
Other courses that are required for this program include the following:
- Theories of Career Development
- Group Dynamics and Counseling
- Clinical Foundations
- Violence, Trauma, and Healing
- Developmental Psychopathology
Furthermore, you’ll take highly focused classes like Relational Sex Therapy, which surveys concepts related to human sexuality in a relational context. This course analyzes topics like sexual expression, sexual development, and sex-related assessments and treatments.
This program also requires two comprehensive examinations. The first is a written exam that occurs after the winter term during the program’s first year. Think of this exam as a checkpoint to ensure you have an appropriate understanding of fundamental marriage and family therapy concepts.
The second exam is clinically based and occurs after the spring semester of the program’s second year after you’ve completed the required field experience. Again, this exam is a checkpoint to gauge the clinical skills you have acquired during the program.
Regarding the externship, you’re required to accumulate at least 350 hours of direct contact time with clients. Of those, 150 must be in a relational context with couples or families. Hours can be accrued at any of the University of Oregon’s partner sites.
You must meet the following requirements to be considered for admission:
- Have a bachelor’s degree from an accredited institution.
- Submit official transcripts from every college or university you’ve attended.
- Submit a current curriculum vitae or resume.
- Provide a personal statement in which you discuss your professional goals and how this program will help you achieve those goals.
- Submit three letters of recommendation.
Oregon Institute of Technology
Master of Science in Marriage and Family Therapy
The Oregon Institute of Technology offers a Master of Science in Marriage and Family Therapy that provides you with complete training for your career. In addition to learning how to assess, diagnose, and treat clients, you’ll learn the ins and outs of specific therapeutic approaches like systems theory and relational theory. This combination of training topics allows you to provide comprehensive counseling services to individuals, couples, and families.
You can enroll in this program as a full-time or part-time student. The full-time program takes nearly three years to complete. The part-time program, on the other hand, requires five years of studies. Typically, students enroll full-time. You’ll have to submit a special request to enroll part-time.
As is common for programs like this, your initial training focuses on introductory courses that introduce you to seminal topics in this field. These courses include the following:
- Counseling Theory and Skills
- Introduction to Marriage and Family Therapy
- Lifespan Development
- Professional Studies: Ethics
- Families, Substance Use, and Addiction
So, while each of these classes focuses on a different topic, from a macro perspective, they all share the commonality of offering foundational training upon which you can build deep competencies for marriage and family therapy.
A good example of this is the Families, Substance Use, and Addiction course. Many relational issues are caused by substance use, so understanding the process of addiction, the impacts it has on relationships, and how to treat those issues in a relational context is of the utmost importance.
Of course, you’ll also take classes focusing on working with specific populations or issues. For example, the Child and Adolescent Psychopathology and Diagnosis course examines common child and adolescent disorders (e.g., ADHD, Oppositional-Defiant Disorder) and how to effectively treat them in the context of family therapy. Another example is Trauma and Recovery, which teaches you how to provide emergency counseling services for families in distress, such as those who have experienced the loss of a loved one or who have lived through another traumatic event, like a natural disaster.
Additional coursework covers these topics:
- Adult Psychopathology and Diagnosis
- Medical Family Therapy: Illness, Families, and Professionals
- Advanced Family Therapy
- Pharmacology of Substance Use Disorders
- Group Therapy
As you can see from the sample courses discussed thus far, this program offers training in every corner of marriage and family therapy. Completing this coursework prepares you to work with individuals, couples, families, and groups on any manner of issues that negatively impact your client’s functioning.
The final piece of this program is a year-long practicum that extends throughout the final year of the program. In addition to taking practicum-related courses, you must complete the necessary number of field training hours at approved sites. These hours are supervised; you’ll work closely with an onsite supervisor who will guide and direct your development as a clinician. You’ll also participate in supervisory sessions with a small group of your classmates and your professors.
You must meet the following requirements to apply:
- Have a bachelor’s degree in social sciences from an accredited college or university.
- Have a 3.0 GPA or higher for the last 90 quarter credits (60 semester credits) of undergraduate coursework.
- Provide evidence of self-awareness and maturity. You must also demonstrate a well-informed interest in this field and the potential for success in graduate studies and marriage and family therapy.
- Submit transcripts from every college or university you’ve attended.
- Provide a personal essay in which you discuss who you are, why you’re interested in marriage and family therapy, and why Oregon Tech’s program is a good fit for your needs.
- Provide a current resume.
- Submit three letters of recommendation.
- Pass a criminal background check.
You may also be required to participate in an interview with the program’s faculty.
George Fox University
Master’s in Marriage, Couple, and Family Counseling
The Master’s in Marriage, Couple, and Family Counseling from George Fox University is a dual-licensure program. On the one hand, it prepares you to pursue an LMFT credential. On the other hand, the program also equips you to pursue the Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC) credential in Oregon.
Another interesting feature of this program is that you can complete coursework online or in person. Naturally, the online option offers more flexibility. However, completing classes in person provides a deeper level of connection with your professors and classmates that might be beneficial for your development as a preservice counselor. Having said that, George Fox University has worked hard to design this program with maximum flexibility in mind. As such, you can enjoy features like day, evening, and weekend classes that fit your busy schedule.
You must complete the same coursework whatever modality you choose for completing your coursework. The 64-credit program requires as few as two years of full-time studies to complete or as many as four years of part-time studies. Both online and in-person classes are taught by highly trained, full-time faculty with real-world clinical experience.
The curriculum is divided into the following course sequences:
- Spiritual Integration
- Counseling Core
- Marriage and Family Specialization
- Elective course
- Field Placement
The Spiritual Integration component includes two classes. The first is Spirituality and Clinical Practice, which focuses on the relationship between spirituality and mental health and the implications of the two on treatment of mental illnesses in a clinical setting.
The second course, Shame and Grace, examines the differences between guilt, shame, and grace, and focuses on how you can help your clients move through negative emotions, find grace, and guide them through the healing process.
The largest piece of the curriculum is the Counseling Core. As you’d expect, these classes focus on specific competencies you’ll need as a counselor, such as working with groups, addressing addictions, and psychopathology.
One of the most important Counseling Core classes is Principles and Techniques of Counseling. This class offers a basic overview of counseling skills and concepts pertaining to individual counseling. More specifically, you’ll develop skills related to therapeutic interviewing, attending, and ethics.
Additionally, you’ll take Introduction to Trauma-Informed Practice, during which you’ll learn how to identify risk factors and features of resiliency in your clients. You’ll also learn how to harness your clients’ capacities for resiliency to inform intervention and treatment that helps them navigate the complexities of stress, distress, and trauma.
Other key courses you’re required to complete in the Counseling Core include the following:
- Group Theory and Therapy
- Research Methods and Statistics
- Cultural Foundations and Social Justice
- Psychopharmacology
- Human Growth and Development
The Marriage and Family Specialization courses unsurprisingly focus more on the specialized skills you need to work with couples and families. As such, classes like Family Therapy, Couples Therapy, and Sexual Issues in the Clinical Setting are key components of this part of the curriculum.
Likewise, you’ll take a two-part Treatment Planning class that explores the ins and outs of providing clinical treatment. You’ll learn how to develop treatment plans and assess the client’s progress. You’ll also focus on proper reporting, referral procedures, and consultation practices. You can supplement this learning by taking one elective course of your choice, focusing on an area of interest in marriage and family therapy.
Lastly, you must complete a field placement in which you complete 700 hours of supervised clinical work. At least 280 of these hours must be directly with clients, and 120 of these hours must be with couples and families. Furthermore, you are required to complete 20 hours of personal counseling. Going to counseling as the client not only helps you work through potential blind spots in your life, but it also gives you a better context of the client experience that is informative for how you approach your work as a counselor.
The admissions criteria are as follows:
- Have a bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university.
- Have a cumulative undergraduate GPA of 3.0 or higher.
- Submit official transcripts from every college or university you’ve attended.
- Provide two letters of recommendation.
- Provide a current resume.
- Submit a short essay.
Portland State University
Master’s in Marriage, Couple and Family Counseling
Yet another popular option for completing your degree in Oregon is the Master’s in Marriage, Couple and Family Counseling from Portland State University. This three-year program is full-time and offers on campus in downtown Portland. The program is designed as a cohort, so you’ll progress through each class with the same classmates.
The program’s first year focuses on foundational courses that help you build general counseling skills. These classes also provide specific training in marriage and family therapy. You can expect to focus on topics such as:
- Developmental foundations
- Marriage and family therapy theories
- Marriage and family therapy interventions
- Legal and ethical issues in counseling
- Psychopathology, diagnosis, and treatment planning
Aside from learning about these and other concepts in class, you’ll also take part in a group counseling experience, which takes place at Portland State’s Experiential Training Clinic. You’ll participate as a client in a group counseling session led by recent graduates of the program. The purpose of this activity is fivefold:
- Increase self-awareness
- Discover your personal cultural identity
- Improve interpersonal skills
- Acquire group counseling skills
- Increase readiness to participate in a clinical practicum
Then, in the program’s second year, you’ll take additional coursework and focus more on obtaining real-world counseling experience. This experience comes in the practicum phase at the university’s Community Counseling Clinic. There, you’ll spend a year gaining clinical experience and working as a peer supervisor for members of your cohort. Your work will be closely supervised by faculty members, who will provide support and feedback designed to help you improve your skills and competencies before starting the yearlong internship.
Speaking of the internship, you’ll complete 20-30 hours of work per week for the duration of the program’s third year. The program will help you find an appropriate internship placement with a partner organization. The university maintains partnerships with a wide range of institutions, such as:
- Children’s Home Society of Washington
- Domestic Violence Resource Center
- Oregon Commission for the Blind
- Sakura Counseling
- William Temple House
Completing these and other program requirements makes you eligible to apply for licensure as an LPC or LMFT in Oregon. Furthermore, you can use the direct service hours gained in this program to count toward the 3,000 hours of clinical experience needed for the National Certified Counselor (NCC) credential.
The application period for this program begins each September for entrance into the program the following fall. Applications are due in January of the following year. The following requirements must be met in order to apply:
- Have a bachelor’s degree or higher from an accredited institution. Your degree must have at least one upper-division psychopathology course and one upper-division counseling course. If not, you are required to complete these courses once you’re admitted to this program.
- Submit official transcripts from every college or university you’ve attended.
- Provide a current resume that outlines prior work and volunteer experience related to counseling.
- Provide a statement of purpose.
- Submit contact details for two or more references who can address your capacity for graduate-level work.
Capella University
Online Master of Science in Marriage and Family Therapy
Another online option you might consider is the Master of Science in Marriage and Family Therapy from Capella University. This program is accredited by the Commission on Accreditation for Marriage and Family Therapy Education (COAMFTE).
While the program has a clinical focus, it also includes a research component. You’ll learn how to critically evaluate academic research, conduct original research, and effectively report your findings. Additionally, you’ll develop the ability to integrate current research into your therapy practice to provide advanced services tailored to your clients’ needs.
The curriculum for this program consists of 16 courses, two residencies, a practicum, and an internship. You’ll complete a total of 72 quarter credits. Each course is ten weeks long, with three-week breaks between each quarter.
Your studies will begin with core courses designed to help you develop essential counseling knowledge and skills. For example, in the Couple and Marital Therapy course, you’ll examine systemic therapy methods and techniques, as well as assessment, intervention, and treatment planning for individuals, couples, and families.
The course on Assessment, Tests, and Measures will enhance your ability to work with clients with specific needs. You’ll receive detailed training on the assessment process and learn how to use data from psychological tests to inform your therapeutic decisions.
Other critical topics in this program include:
- Psychopathology: Diagnosis and treatment of behavior disorders.
- Impact of addiction and addictive behavior on family systems.
- Working with families across the lifespan.
- Diversity and social justice in System Family Therapy.
- Systemic interventions for grief, loss, and trauma.
The two residencies combine online coursework with in-person clinical experiences. During the online portion, you’ll prepare to apply clinical skills in real-world settings. You’ll focus on topics like therapeutic relationships, case conceptualization, and crisis intervention. You’ll also learn to facilitate group therapy processes and integrate systemic therapy techniques into practice.
The practicum and internship build upon the skills you gain during the residencies. While you continue online coursework, you’ll gain hands-on experience applying increasingly advanced techniques in client interactions.
During your internship, you’ll manage all aspects of therapeutic care, including intake, assessment, treatment planning, and conducting clinical counseling sessions for families, couples, and individuals. This supervised experience includes weekly onsite supervision and online group supervision with clinical faculty and peers.
You can apply to Capella University’s graduate program online. The admission requirements include the following:
- A bachelor’s degree from an accredited institution.
- A cumulative undergraduate GPA of 2.7 or higher.
- Official transcripts from all colleges and universities attended.
- Two letters of recommendation from professional references.
- A current resume or curriculum vitae.
- A 3-6 page essay.
- A copy of a valid government photo I.D.
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