REQUIRED COURSEWORK
To become an Associate member you must have completed at least five (5) of the courses
required for RMFT status.
Typically, candidates have completed at least one course in each category; some exceptions may be allowed.
To become an RMFT you need all 11 of the courses.
Click here for a 'Required Coursework' form or use the one in the application.
Marriage and Family Studies (a minimum of three courses required)
These courses will prepare candidates to understand and conceptualize their clients using systems theory. Candidates should be familiar with and think in systems terms about issues and dynamics present in a wide variety of family structures and a diverse range of presenting issues (e.g., gender and orientation, culture and migration narratives, substance abuse, First Nations and indigenous issues in Canada/North America). Topic areas may include: Systems Theory, Family Development, Blended Families, Gender Issues in Families, Cultural Issues in Families, The Indigenous Worldview and Indigenous Family Dynamics, Residential School Trauma and Recovery, Genocide and Families, Forced Immigration and Family Impacts, Traumatized Families and Intergenerational Impacts.
Marriage and Family Therapy (a minimum of three courses required)
These courses will prepare candidates to grasp and demonstrate their ability to utilize advanced family systems theories and systemic therapeutic interventions as they engage with client couples and families. Candidates will also demonstrate substantive understanding of the major theories of systems change and the applied practices evolving from each theoretical orientation. Major Theoretical Approaches might include: Strategic, Structural, Object Relations Family Therapy, Behavioral Family Therapy, Communications Family Therapy, Intergenerational Family Therapy, and Systemic Sex Therapy, Neurobiology and Trauma-Informed Practice, Traumatology: Types 1, 2 and 3, Culturally-Based Theoretical Approaches and including Safe and Effective Use of Self.
Human Development (a minimum of three courses required)
These courses will prepare candidates to demonstrate knowledge of individual personality development and its normal and abnormal manifestations. Candidates should be conversant in human development across the life span, which includes special issues that affect an individual’s development (i.e. culture, gender, and human sexuality). This material should be integrated with systems concepts. Topic areas may include: Human Development, Child/Adolescent Development, Psychopathology, Personality Theory, Human Sexuality, Attachment as a Precedent for Mental Health in Adults. Test and measurement courses are not accepted toward this area.
Professional Ethics (a minimum of one course required)
This course will prepare candidates to function as ethical professionals in the field of marriage and family therapy. This course should also include exploration of the significance of diversity in the practice of therapy. If the course has been taken in Canada after 2015 it should include an understanding of the resolutions from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Religious ethics courses and moral theology courses are not accepted toward this area.
If the course does not provide opportunity to reflect on the resolutions form the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, applicants are strongly encouraged to attend an additional course, workshop, or training event that focusses on the TRC in order to fulfill this requirement.
Research (a minimum of one course required)
This course will prepare candidates to understand and perform research, demonstrating an ability to read and think critically regarding research in the field of marriage and family therapy. Topic areas may include: Research Methodology, Quantitative, Qualitative Methods, and Statistics.