A counselor and a patient sit in an office talking

Marriage and Family Therapy

Program Overview
Admissions Requirements
Courses
Tuition & Aid

Marriage and Family Therapists (MFTs) are professional mental health providers who serve a critical role in helping individuals, couples, and families heal from psychological and relationship wounds as well as solve psychological and relationship problems. In their clinical work, MFTs enter into individual and relational suffering of loss, grief, trauma, difficult transitions, and conflict as a presence that can catalyze healing.

The Lipscomb Marriage and Family Therapy masters program is the only COAMFTE accredited (the gold standard in the field) program in Middle Tennessee. Students in the Lipscomb MFT program go through rigorous and comprehensive training and become highly trained, caring, and compassionate therapists who can effectively treat the challenges faced by individuals, couples, and families. Our cohort model provides students the unique opportunity to learn systems theory while forming a social system within their cohort.

Your rigorous training will prepare you to serve individuals overcoming their mental health challenges, help couples restore a thriving relationship, and lead families to create healthy and effective family processes. And once you finish here, you’ll be able to continue your clinical work while pursuing the Marriage and Family Therapy license.

Whether you are straight out of undergraduate work, are looking for a meaningful career change, or would like to expand your existing skill set in helping others, a Masters degree in Marriage and Family Therapy can situate you to help and heal in powerful ways.

Click here for Program Diversity and Student / Graduate Achievement

Program Foundations

The mission of the Lipscomb Master's in Marriage and Family Therapy program is to prepare you with academic and clinical training in marriage and family therapy that is founded in science in preparation for work with individuals, couples, families, and social systems from diverse ideological, spiritual, demographic, and socioeconomic backgrounds. This training is informed by Christian values such as love, empathy, forgiveness, grace, and tolerance, encouraging students to provide greater service in the home, congregation, community, nation, and world.

Specializations

Play Therapy

One area of popular interest is how to foster the mental health and development of children, adults, and families. A great way to do that is through play therapy.

Play therapy is an empirically grounded therapeutic approach where clients use the natural medium of play and toys as tools to express themselves. As children's experiences and knowledge are often communicated through play, it becomes an important vehicle for them to know and accept themselves and others.

We are proud to offer a specialization in play therapy, a nine-hour training track structured to enable students to gain knowledge, personal experience, and practical application of play therapy and expressive arts techniques. This specialization requires one additional course (3 credit hours) to the master's degree in Marriage and Family Therapy.

Capstone Projects and Clinical Hours

Theory of Change Paper

Students write a Theory of Change (TOC) paper. The TOC is an integrative culmination of all learning in the program into a coherent articulation of how students conceptualize and perform their practice of marriage and family therapy.

Clinical Hours Requirements

In Tennessee and many other states, 300 direct client contact hours is all that is required in order to pursue licensure as a marriage and family therapist after graduation. However, in many other states (at least 10 at last count), 500 or more hours of direct client contact are required. Therefore, we strongly recommend doing whatever it takes to graduate with over 500 hours of direct client contact. The national exam website (https://amftrb.org/) has information on state practicum requirements in their “Licensure Resources” section. For the most up to date information, we recommend looking directly at state board information on practicum requirements for MFT licensure.

Clinical Placements

Marriage and family therapists engage with everyone with respect, compassion, humility, and fairness, and with an appreciation for cultural diversity and difference. As a program, we operate our own sliding fee scale clinic, Lipscomb Family Therapy Center, with the goal of making mental health and relationship care affordable for all individuals, couples, and families in the Nashville community. In order to offer a diverse set of clinical experiences for our students, we have also partnered with outside clinical placements. Some of our clinical partners have included:

The Lipscomb MFT program is supported by an advisory board comprised of strategic stakeholders inside and outside of Lipscomb University.

Accreditation

Mission

The mission of the Lipscomb Master's in Marriage and Family Therapy (M.MFT) program is to prepare students with academic and clinical training in marriage and family therapy that is founded in science in preparation for work with individuals, couples, families, and social systems from diverse ideological, spiritual, demographic, and socioeconomic backgrounds. This training is informed by Christian values such as love, empathy, forgiveness, grace, and tolerance, encouraging students to provide greater service in the home, congregation, community, nation, and world.

Diversity

In the Lipscomb M.MFT program, we strive to engage graciously with human systems in ways that result in healing, growth, and increased resilience. We understand that individuals and human systems are unique and also an expression of the image of God. Therefore, it is our goal to treat everyone well, abiding by the Golden Rule. When people “do unto others as you would have them to do to you,” a shared cultural humility emerges allowing room for self-expression without fear of academic or social penalties. We are sensitive to the diverse nature of humanity and treat people and social systems with respect and appreciation in areas where differences and disagreements may be present.

Diversity spans the widest variety of individual and social system differences. These differences may be observed in:

Age
Ethnicity and Race
Gender
Physical Health and Ability
Sexuality, Sexual Identity, and Sexual Orientation
Cultural Assumptions
Language and Communication Processes
Political and Philosophical Ideology
Religion, Spirituality, and Faith
Privilege and Power
Socioeconomic Status
Nationality and Immigration Status
Family and Social Structure

We seek to create a safe learning environment where honest expression and respect for differences may result in the desired outcome of academic communion. Since agreement is not a prerequisite for academic communion, diversity and disagreement are not only welcomed, but invited. In this MFT program, we believe the presence of healthy, respectful disagreement promotes a more productive academic environment for everyone.
View the table that illustrates the diversity and graduate achievements in our program.

Program Goals and Outcomes

MFT and LFTC Manual

Admissions Requirements

Please submit:

Lipscomb University's online application
A 500-700 word essay that explains more about you, why you're doing this, and why Lipscomb
Three letters of recommendation
Official transcripts from all schools attended
GRE scores (waived if you already hold a master's degree, optional if you have a 3.0 or above undergraduate GPA)
Interview

The deadline to apply for Fall 2021 will be March 31, 2021. Interview day will be April 23, 2021.

International Students

Courses

Courses in Sequence:

Fall I

PSFT 5903: Introduction to Marriage and Family Therapy Skills
PSFT 5103: Introduction to Systems and Family Theory
PSFT 6733: Non-traditional Families

Spring I

PSFT 5203: Family Therapy 1
PSFT 5403: Ethics and Clinical Practice
PSFT 6833: Practicum

Summer I

PSFT 6A23: Introduction to Play Therapy
PSFT 5603: Research Methods and Statistics
PSFT 6603: Diagnosis and Assessment
PSFT 6843: Supervised Clinical Practice I

Fall II

PSFT 6713: Family Therapy II
PSFT 6763: Intimacy: Sexuality, Couple and Sex Therapy
PSFT 6853: Supervised Clinical Practice II

Spring II

PSFT 6823: Professional Marriage and Family Therapy: Evidence Based Mental Health Care
PSFT 6053: Cultural Diversity in MFT
PSFT 6863: Supervised Clinical Practice III

Summer II

PSFT 6613: Family Life Cycle: Theory and practice
PSFT 6353: Treating Trauma and Addiction in Families
PSFT 6873: Supervised Clinical Practice IV
PSFT 6813 - Marriage and Family Therapy Exam and Licensure (3)

Specialization

There is one area of specializations in the MMFT program.

Play Therapy: This concentration is a 9 credit hour concentration where two Play Therapy courses and one Play Therapy Supervised Clinical Practice (SCP) replace two regular MFT courses and integrate Play Therapy into one SCP. The MMFT with a Play Therapy Concentration is 63 credit hours.

Special Courses

PSFT 6800: Clinical Practice Extension
PSFT 688V: Independent Study in MFT
PSFT 6XN3: Special Topics in MFT

Tuition & Aid

$962* per credit hour
Books and iPad included in tuition

*Note: The graduate tuition rates may increase annually, effective each summer semester.

Types of Aid

Assistantships and Scholarships

Graduate assistantships are available. Assistantships, though highly competitive, provide between $15,000 and $30,000 tuition reduction (distributed evenly across entire program) depending whether the assistantship is half or quarter time. You may apply for a GA position after being accepted into the program.

American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT) is the professional organization for Marriage and Family Therapists. Each year AAMFT welcomes applications for the AAMFT Minority Fellowship program. Click here for more details.

Student Loans

As a graduate student, you are still able to file the FAFSA—and you should! By filing the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid), you may be eligible for a number of student loans.

Federal Stafford Loan

A borrower must be enrolled or accepted for enrollment for at least six semester hours and must be working toward a degree or certificate. Loans must be actively accepted in myLipscomb in order to be applied as an expected payment to the student bill. Stafford Loans will not pay until the student has completed both Entrance Counseling and the Master Promissory Note at studentloans.gov. Loans will not be credited to accounts until 30 days after classes begin or when a student begins the sixth credit hour, whichever comes last.

Graduate PLUS Loan

The Graduate PLUS Loan is available to independent graduate students. Both loans require credit approval by the Department of Education, as well as a FAFSA submission. Apply.

Private Loans

In addition to the federal loans outlined here, you may consider private loans made by banks and other financial institutions. It is recommended that private loans only be considered in instances where funding is needed in addition to any federal loans, as interest rates may be higher. Eligibility for these loans requires a credit check and students are often required to have a cosigner to qualify.

Veteran Aid/Yellow Ribbon Program

Through an agreement with the United States Department of Veteran Affairs, Lipscomb University will guarantee some level of graduate tuition funding, applicable to all Lipscomb University graduate programs, for graduate students who qualify for the Yellow Ribbon Program. Depending on program tuition rates, the graduate tuition funding may or may not cover the total tuition cost of the program.

The Yellow Ribbon Education Enhancement Program (Yellow Ribbon Program) is a provision of the Post- 9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act of 2008. This program allows institutions of higher learning in the United States to voluntarily enter into an agreement with VA to fund tuition expenses. View eligibility requirements.

Any questions concerning eligibility or benefits should be directed to the VA school-certifying official located in the lower level of Bennett Campus Center, Suite 140, or visit their website.

Contact Information

Graduate and Adult Admissions, Admin

Kathi Johnson
Director of Graduate Admissions, Psychology
6159665237 ext. 5237
kathi.johnson@lipscomb.edu

13:1

Student to faculty ratio

Small Class Sizes

You’ll have opportunities to engage in meaningful discussion, receive one-on-one faculty mentorship and ask difficult questions in our small class sizes. Plus, you’ll feel supported in a tight-knit learning community.

Cohort Model

Our cohort model emphasizes communal learning and extended field experiences. You’ll have the opportunity to form professional and personal relationships with like-minded peers that will extend far beyond the duration of the program.

Nashville

A big city. An even bigger opportunity. We consider Nashville an extension of our classroom, and as a leading city in many industries, that means you’ll gain experience and insight you won’t find anywhere else.

Our Faculty

Chris Gonzalez

Director, Marriage and Family Therapy

Gonzalez joined the psychology and counseling faculty in Fall 2010 after completing his Ph.D. in Family Social Science from University of Minnesota. He teaches several courses in the MFT program....
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Justin Briggs

Clinical Director

Justin Gregory Briggs joined the faculty at Lipscomb University in 2014. He completed his Ph.D. in Marriage and Family Therapy at Purdue University and earned his M.S. in Marital and...
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Dave Morgan

Associate Professor

Morgan joined the psychology and counseling faculty in Fall 2013 after a several years in the Lipscomb University Counseling Center where he served as a therapist and the Director of...
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William Turner

Distinguished Prof of Leadership and Public Policy

Turner holds a Distinguished Professorship in the College of Leadership and Public Service and is Counselor to the President at Lipscomb University on matters of diversity and strategic community engagement....
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Career Paths

Marriage and Family Therapists

Marriage and family therapists help people manage and overcome problems with family and other relationships.

Play Therapist

After becoming a licensed Clinical Mental Health Counselor or Marriage and Family Therapist, you can become a registered play therapist. A Registered Play Therapist will use play therapy to help clients (regardless of age) find healing and achieve the growth they desire.