Faculty:

• DeMarquis Clarke, Ph.D., LMFT, AAMFT Clinical Fellow, Program Director

The MFT program at Seton Hill University is guided by the systems belief that all human experience unfolds within relationship. This relational systemic emphasis is at the heart of our program and intrinsic to the ways in which we believe, think, teach, and practice.

Our program is further guided by a commitment to understanding and respecting cultural diversity. We work from the premise that human differences are important and valuable. Therefore the Marriage and Family Therapy Program at Seton Hill is designed to educate students in family systems theory and clinical techniques with special emphasis upon understanding family process within a broader socio-cultural context.

This emphasis is consistent with the University’s graduate studies philosophy which encourages students to recognize multi-cultural contexts and the role of privilege and oppression; and further to encourage students to become aware of their personal values, aware of how these values affect professional practice, and able to responsibly act as agents of social change.

Program Mission Statement

The MFT program is guided by the Mission of the University and the Statement of Philosophy of Graduate Study. The program educates students to be clinicians who can think and practice systemically, to help individuals, families, and couples to resolve challenges that they face. The program is committed to providing education and training in compliance with the Commission on Accreditation for Marriage and Family Therapy Education (COAMFTE) standards.

Program Goals

The Marriage and Family Therapy Program at Seton Hill offers a Master of Arts degree in Marriage and Family Therapy. The program is dedicated to providing students with the education and experiences they need to become skilled family therapists who are eligible to seek licensure as Marriage and Family Therapists.

The goals of the Master of Arts in Marriage and Family Therapy Program are to:

• train and graduate therapists who have the skills to conceptualize and treat clients systemically
• educate students with a special emphasis on understanding self, diverse others, and relational process within socio-cultural context
• graduate students who claim the identity of Marriage and Family Therapists

Students who earn a Master of Arts degree in Marriage and Family Therapy will be eligible to sit for the examination to become Licensed Marriage and Family Therapists in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania after the completion of 3000 hours of supervised clinical practice.