COAMFTE Accreditation

Accredited: November 1, 2016; Renewed in May 2023

CSUN’s MFT program is accredited by the Commission on Accreditation for Marriage and Family Therapy Education (COAMFTE). Accreditation is a voluntary process designed to ensure the quality of education provided by marriage and family therapy programs. All accredited programs are expected to meet or exceed all accreditation standards throughout their period of accreditation. As part of this process and in accordance with the Accreditation Standards Version 12.5, programs are required to meet COAMFTE Graduate Achievement Criteria by cohort and publish this information on the homepage of its website. Below please find tables reporting student achievement data for CSUN.

Graduate Achievement Data I

The Commission requires that each program report Graduation Rates for the advertised length of time for each cohort. The rate is calculated by dividing the total number of individuals enrolling in the program by the total number of individuals graduating within each time period.

Graduate Achievement Data II

The Commission requires that each program report Job Placement Rates for each cohort. This rate is calculated by dividing the number of individuals who entered in the year listed that are employed using skills developed in their program of study divided by the number of individuals that provided their employment status to the program.

Graduate Achievement Data III

The Commission requires that each program report the licensure rate for each cohort, which is defined as the percentage of graduates from the cohort year that have achieved ANY level of MFT licensure. In California, this is defined as achieving the Associate Level of licensure. For Master’s programs only, COAMFTE has established a benchmark of 70% licensure rate for each cohort.

Graduate Achievement Data Disclosure

• FT=Full‐time
• IP=In Process: Students from the cohort listed have yet to graduate from the cohort year listed.
• Programs are only required to provide data on the past 7 years/cohort or since the program was initially accredited, whichever is shorter.
• *Graduation Rate is the program’s Advertised Length of Completion which is how long the program is designed to complete as written.
• **Job Placement Rate is the percentage of graduates from the cohort year that are employed utilizing skills learned in the COAMFTE accredited program.
• ***Licensure rate is the percentage of graduates from the cohort year that have achieved ANY level of MFT licensure. For CSUN, this refers to seeking Associate MFT status in California.
• For Master’s programs only, COAMFTE has established a benchmark of 70% licensure rate for each cohort. 

MFT Program Learning Objectives

Instructional Philosophy

The Marriage and Family Therapy/Counseling program at CSUN is designed based on a learning-centered, outcome-based educational principles as described below:

Learning-Centered Education

• A cross-disciplinary, constructivist pedagogical model, learning-centered education refers to designing educational curricula that focus on promoting active student learning of specific skills and knowledge rather than mastery of content.
• In this approach, learning is the focus of curriculum design. Student learning is measured to determine whether students are meaningfully engaging the material. Students are active in this process, applying and using knowledge rather than trying to memorize or analyze it.
• Clearly defined learning objectives and criteria are used to facilitate student learning and democratized the student-teacher relationship.

Outcome-Based Education

• Closely related to learning-centered, outcome-based learning refers to designing curriculum around the final learning outcomes or objectives.
• Rather than simply following the textbook chapter by chapter, the learning objectives drive the curriculum.

The learning objectives and outcome measures for this program have been derived from three distinct sources:

1. The California State Board of Behavioral Science (BBS) educational requirements for becoming a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor.
2. The Marriage and Family Therapy Core Competencies developed by the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy.
3. The Student Learning Objectives (SLO) developed by the departmental faculty.

Program Goals & Student Learning Objectives (SLO's)

Program Goal #1:

Knowledge, Research and Ethics: Educate new professionals on the foundational knowledge required for effective practice, including in family therapy theories, the field’s evidence base, and legal and ethical standards.

• SLO1: Knowledge: Students and graduates demonstrate knowledge of family therapy theories and intervention.
• SLO2: Ethics: Students and graduates demonstrate a practical understanding of the legal and ethical standards of MFT practice in California.
• SLO3: Research: Students are able to identify and interpret professional research and literature to meaningfully inform practice.

Program Goal #2:

Diversity: Enable students to consciously engage with the complexities of intersecting personal identities and societal processes and to use these understandings to inform their clinical work.

• SLO4: Diversity Awareness: Students demonstrate reflective practices that promote personal growth and self-awareness, enabling students to critically and accurately evaluate how their beliefs, behaviors, and cultural context affect clients and shape their practice.

Program Goal #3:

Practice: Train students to effectively provide clinical services to the diverse communities of Southern California.

• SLO5: Assessment: Students conduct psychosocial, family, clinical, diagnostic, crisis, and progress assessments of clients that account for individual as well as family system dynamics and larger socio-political and cultural contexts.
• SLO6: Clinical Intervention: Students and graduates demonstrate effective, evidence-based, and culturally responsive therapy interventions with clients.

Assessment Policies

Program educational outcomes, including student learning outcomes, program outcomes, and faculty outcomes are measuring on an ongoing basis. The sources of data include signature assignments in individual courses, course evaluations by students, site supervisors, licensure data provided by the California Board of Behavioral Sciences, alumni surveys, student surveys, employer surveys, and institutional data maintained by CSUN. These assessments are used to continually improve program outcomes.

Program Assessment

The MFT program uses a comprehensive data assessment process for ongoing program improvement. This process involves assessing student learning and surveying faculty, students, alumni, supervisors, and employers on an ongoing basis.

All faculty are required to participate in program assessment, including collecting data in specified courses, completing faculty surveys, and participating in faculty review of program data.

Highlights of this process include:

• Student Learning Assessment: Formal student learning outcomes are assessed through academic and clinical courses, including fieldwork, clinical assessment, and culminating experience courses. Faculty teaching these courses must be involved in data collection and review.
• Sufficiency of Academic, Clinical, Technological, Instructional, Supervisory, Fiscal, Physical, and Student Support Resources:Faculty and students are surveyed each year to determine the sufficiency of resources to enable the program to meet its goals. Areas of review include:
  • Student Learning Outcomes
  • Fiscal and physical resources
  • Technological resources
  • Academic resources
  • Student support services
  • Instructional and clinical resources
  • Faculty sufficiency
  • Supervisory sufficiency
• Alumni and Employers: Alumni and employers are surveyed every 2-3 years to assess how well the program prepares students for contemporary work settings.
• Review of Data: The Program Coordinator oversees data collection and aggregates data for review. Core faculty review data related to SLOs, program surveys, and fieldwork each spring semester at the April Program Assessment Meeting Faculty meeting to identify areas in need of improvement and evaluate the effectiveness of prior efforts to improve program outcomes. Additionally, the entire MFT Program Faculty (core and adjuncts) reviews key findings from the April review in the August All MFT Faculty Meeting.
• Reporting Back to the Community: The results of the program assessment are reported (a) to core faculty in the April Core Faculty Meeting, (b) to Adjunct Faculty in the August All MFT Faculty Meeting, (c) to students in each semester’s Advising Meeting, and (d) to all communities of interest in the Program Director’s Report each summer.