Campus News

FACS to host marriage, family therapy program directors’ two-day meeting

Directors of marriage and family therapy programs that award doctoral degrees will gather at UGA Sept. 21-22 to discuss new collaborations and ways to share resources.

“MFT Ph.D. programs are designed to prepare graduate students to conduct research in the marriage and family therapy field, in addition to furthering their clinical skills,” said Lee Johnson, assistant professor of child and family development in the College of Family and Consumer Sciences, who heads the MFT program at UGA.

This will be the second time that representatives from MFT Ph.D. programs have met. At their first meeting last year in Sundance, Utah, hosted by Brigham Young University, those attending discussed a range of issues, including ways of assessing student learning outcomes for research methods, grant writing and collaboration across programs.

The groups also discussed the future of MFT Ph.D. programs. At the end of the meeting, it was agreed to continue the meetings on an annual basis and to tie them to the Annual Association of Marriage and Family Therapy meeting, which will be held Sept. 23-26 in Atlanta.