Couple and Family Therapy: PsyD, Irvine, Los Angeles, Sacramento, and San Diego

Mission and Objectives

Provide the highest quality diversity sensitive professional education, training, community engagement, and scholarship in the profession of Marriage and Family Therapy.

• Professional Education: We train ethical, diverse professionals to deliver competent CFT services to foster the well-being of diverse individuals, children, couples, families, organizations, and communities.
• Diversity: We promote and advocate for understanding, honor, and respect for the diversity of human relationships with an emphasis on populations from diverse multicultural, socioeconomic, and international backgrounds.
• Community: We actively engage a diversity of communities through the knowledge and skills of couple and family therapy to make a positive difference.
• Scholarship: We contribute to the understanding, creation, and dissemination of couple and family therapy scholarship.

Student Learning Outcomes (SLO)

SLO 1 Practice Foundational Knowledge and Skills: Master’s and doctoral students comprehend and demonstrate CFT conceptual, perceptual, executive, evaluative, professional, and theoretical skills.

SLO 2 Diversity Knowledge and Skills: Master’s and doctoral students comprehend and demonstrate knowledge of human diversity with a multicultural and international emphasis.

SLO 3 Community Knowledge and Skills: Master’s and doctoral students comprehend and demonstrate knowledge of how to engage community behavioral health care resources.

SLO 4 Scholarship Foundation Knowledge and Skills: Master’s and doctoral students demonstrate a basic knowledge of CFT research methodologies and scholarship.

SLO 5 Practice Supervision Knowledge and Skills: Doctoral students comprehend models and methods of CFT supervision.

SLO 6 Practice Specific Knowledge and Skill: Doctoral students articulate and demonstrate the application of a personal CFT model of therapy

SLO 7 Scholarship Application Knowledge and Skills: Doctoral students demonstrate the ability to understand and apply CFT research methods.

Training Model: A Scholar-Practitioner Program

The Doctor of Psychology in Couple and Family Therapy program is offered in Irvine, Los Angeles, Sacramento, and San Diego and leads to a Doctorate of Psychology in Marital and Family Therapy degree. The CFT PsyD is based on the scholar-practitioner model. Students are trained to work with individuals, couples, and families from a systemic perspective. Skills are developed in the assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of individuals and relationship systems. The program provides an integrative approach to the major systemic theories and interventions. The program provides the academic training for licensure as a marriage and family therapist. Students may include certificate in chemical dependency, Latino Family Therapy, and gerontology. Additionally, students may do a certificate in LGBT Human Services and Mental Health or Infant-Preschool Mental Health, both of which are done online. Certificates require additional coursework.

Specialized Admissions Requirements: Credit for Previous Graduate Work

Entering CFT doctoral students may be eligible to receive credit for previous graduate work up to a maximum of 40 units from non-COAMMFTE MA programs and 55 hours for doctoral students from a COAMFTE MA program.

To be considered for credit in our program students’ graduate coursework:
(a) Must have been taken from a regionally accredited master’s or doctoral program.
(b) Must have been completed prior to the student’s entry to the Alliant CFT program.
(c) Must have resulted in grades of B or better and have been completed within the last seven years.

Procedures for transfers/waivers:
The student provides a list of the Alliant courses for which s/he is interested in receiving credit, along with course descriptions and syllabi. It is submitted in writing to the CFT site director for review/approval. Once approved it will be submitted to the registrar office for posting. Students interested in transferring in client contract hours apply through their Student Advisor.

Curriculum and Degree Requirements

The CFT doctoral program includes the completion of COAMFTE accredited master’s program requirements. Practicum program requirements are described in the Master of Arts in Couple and Family Therapy program description and in the Couple and Family Therapy Clinical Training Manual. The doctoral program requires that students are continuously involved in the practice of couple and family therapy. The predoctoral internship consists of 1500 hours. The supervisor for at least 500 client contact hours (250 with couples and families) must be an AAMFT-approved supervisor. Students must supplement their program with 100 hours of professional development activities; 25 of these hours may involve personal counseling or psychotherapy with a licensed person who is not core faculty at Alliant. The program requires completion of a minimum of 114 units. Doctoral students may go either full-time or part-time in completing the program. The standard graduation program completion time for full-time students is 5 years, and the maximum is 10 years. The standard completion time for part-time students is 6 years, the maximum completion time is 10 years.

Curriculum Plan

114 units are required for the PsyD degree in Couple and Family Therapy.

All courses are 3 units, unless indicated otherwise.

Master’s Degree Options in Doctoral CFT Programs

Students in the CFT PsyD program can receive a licensable marital and family therapy master’s degree as part of their doctoral studies upon completion of the requirements for that degree.

Licensure

All marriage and family therapists who offer direct services to the public for a fee must be licensed or certified by the state in which they practice. Applicants for licensure in the state of California must hold an MA or doctoral degree in marriage and family therapy from an approved or accredited educational institution. They also must have completed 3,000 hours of supervised professional experience (of which at least 1,700 must be post masters) and have taken and passed the national Examination for Law and ethics and Clinical. In addition, they must submit evidence of having completed coursework in human sexuality, child abuse, substance abuse, spousal abuse, psychological testing, psychopharmacology, California Law and professional ethics and aging and long-term care. Continuing education is required to maintain the license. CFT doctoral course requirements are designed to fulfill the programmatic requirements for licensure in California, and in some cases they exceed the requirements.

Every state has its own requirements for licensure. Therefore, it is essential that all CSPP CFT PsyD students who plan to apply for licensure in states other than California contact the licensing board in those states for information on state requirements (e.g., coursework, practicum and internship hours, supervision, or nature of the doctoral project or dissertation). Students seeking licensure in other states should plan ahead to ensure they meet all of those states’ requirements.

For further information on licensure in California or other states contact:

Board of Behavioral Sciences

1625 N Market Blvd., Suite S-200, Sacramento, CA 95834

BBS Main Phone Line: (916) 574-7830

BBS Main Fax: (916) 574-8626

General Questions and Information Only:  BBS.info@dca.ca.gov

Website Questions and Feedback: BBSWebmaster@dca.ca.gov

Couple and Family Therapy Faculty

Alyssa Banford, PhD, Assistant Professor, San Diego

Hao-Min Chen, PhD, Assistant Professor, Irvine

Iman Dadras, PhD, Assistant Professor, Los Angeles

Manijeh Daneshpour, PhD, Professor and Site Director, Irvine, Interim Systemwide Program Director, Couple and Family Therapy

Sean Davis, PhD, Professor, Sacramento

Sandra Espinoza, PhD, Visiting Assistant Professor, Los Angeles

Tatiana Glebova, PhD, Associate Professor and Site Director, Sacramento

Noah Hass-Cohen, PsyD, Associate Professor, Los Angeles

Alexander Hsieh, PhD, Assistant Professor, Sacramento

Angela Kim, PhD, Assistant Professor and Site Director, San Diego

Marianne McInnes Miller, PhD, Associate Professor, San Diego

Rajeswari Natrajan-Tyagi, PhD, Associate Professor, Irvine

Sesan Negash, PhD, Assistant Professor, San Diego

Alba Nino, PhD, Assistant Professor, San Diego

Hye-Sun Ro, PhD, Assistant Professor and Site Director, Los Angeles

Gita Seshadri, PhD, Assistant Professor, Sacramento

Linna Wang, PhD, Professor, San Diego

Scott R. Woolley, PhD, Distinguished Professor, San Diego

For a detailed description of program faculty background and research interests, please see the alphabetical listing of Faculty  for the California School of Professional Psychology.