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New MFT Degree Program in LGBT Studies
The MFT Department of Pacific Oaks College, in Pasadena, CA, announces the development of a MA graduate program in Marriage and Family Therapy, specializing in LGBT Family Studies.
This program is meant to compliment the pioneering MA/MFT LGBT Specialization at the Los Angeles campus of Antioch University. The LGBT Family Studies Program will be scheduled to start in Spring 2010.
It will be a 60-semester unit, three year program, satisfying the requirements for
the licensure in Marriage and Family Therapy. The program will have a cohort format of New MFT Degree Program in LGBT Studies Dino Koutsolioutsos, MFT 12 - 20 graduate students, taking the entire fixed course load of 60 semester units together over a three year period of academic and clinical training work, which will include a mandatory Master Thesis, with a research focus on LGBT mental health issues.
The entire spectrum of mental health theory and practice will be taught with the primary focus on the lived experience and mental health needs of LGBT people and families, and with a secondary focus on heterosexual realities and needs.
Admission into the program will require a commitment to specialize in LGBT mental health, but self identification as a LGBTIQ person will not be a requirement.
The program is meant to attract a primarily, but not exclusively, LGBT group of graduate students, who will be taking all program requirements as a group, for the three tear tenure of the cohort experience. Program courses will be taught primarily, but not exclusively, by LGBT experienced, licensed mental health professionals, from a variety of theoretical and clinical backgrounds.
The program will be based on a seminar level, three-day weekend format, scheduled once a month, to allow students from out of town, other California cities and other states, to travel to LA and attend the program.
Besides offering a learning immersion into LGBT mental health, the LGBT Family Studies program and cohort experience is aimed to provide an academic, experiential environment, to support an emerging process at the graduate level, of reconstructing traditional, heterocentric mental health theory and practice, while assisting in the reconstruction and further development of LGBT focused and LGBT relevant mental health theory and practice.
LGBT Mental Health Community Advisory Committee:
As a first step in the development of the LGBT Family Studies program, the MFT Department of Pacific Oaks College will be forming a Community Advisory Committee, to be recruited from academics and mental health professionals of the LGBT community, to advise and assist the department in the development, start and maintenance of the LGBT Family Studies Program. The MFT Department has a successful tradition in an interdisciplinary mental health ideology. Our faculty is evenly represented by all three primary mental health disciplines: MFT, LCSW, and Clinical Psychology (and we have nothing against psychiatrists, either!). We therefore welcome licensed, experienced LGBT mental health professionals from all disciplines and clinical ideologies and practices interested in contributing to, and assisting in, the development of the program.
To volunteer your membership in the Advisory Committee, or if you have any questions, or otherwise are interested in contributing time or energy to this long term endeavor please contact Dino Koutsolioutsos, Academic Director, Department of Marriage and Family Therapy, Pacific Oaks College, 323-469-0479.
Thank you, in advance, for all your help and interest!
Dino Koutsolioutsos, MFT |
