Article archive / June 1, 2013
Originally published: . Volume 4, No. 10. Source pages: 7.
The Marriage and Family Therapy Advisory Committee (MFTAC) members are focusing on using the national Marriage and Family Therapy Core Competences © as a tool for supervisors to rate interns’ performance.
“The supervisor needs to let us know if the individual meets all the standards, and is ready for licensure,” said Chair Mark Reynaud to the committee members in a recent meeting. Mr. Reynaud is a licensed professional counselor and licensed marriage and family therapist. He is credentialed as a supervisor in both professions.
In March the MFTAC discussed developing standards above the present established guidelines. Reynaud explained that the MFT programs are moving toward outcomes-based evidence and away from having only certain courses as the basis for credentials.
“We’ll eventually create an evaluation form,” he said. “This will give the supervisor a way to indicate, ‘Yes, they are competent in these areas.’ ”
The list of core competencies is a product of the American Association for Marriage & Family Therapy, and outlines six domains of therapists’ skills.
These include “Admission to Treatment,” “Clinical Assessment and Diagnosis,” “Treatment Planning and Case Management,” “Therapeutic Interventions,” “Legal Issues, Ethics, and Standards,” and finally “Research and Program Evaluation.”
Each of these categories then includes a breakdown into concept or knowledge areas, awareness skills, and task skills. Also included in these subcategories are evaluation skills, and professional abilities, which include areas of ethical and legal matters.
Effort to begin using the Core Competencies © for intern evaluation and readiness for licensure is one of several goals for the Advisory Committee, Reynaud told the Times.
The Committee is also working to update of the policy and procedure manual so it reflects the current laws and changes, noted Reynaud. The group also helps the Louisiana Association of Marriage and Family Therapists to keep informed about scope of practice for marriage and family therapists.
The list of competencies is available on the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy at http://www.aamft.org/imis15 /content/coamfte/Accreditati on.aspx.
Chair of the Marriage and Family Therapy Advisory Committee, Mark Reynaud, at a recent meeting. The group is working to create an evaluation method for supervisors to rate competencies of interns. They will base this on a model developed by the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy.
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