SW 8813:Family Therapy

3 Class Hours 0 Laboratory Hours 3 Credit Hours
Prerequisite: All MSW Foundation-Level courses.
This course provides a framework for applying practice knowledge, values, and skills when working with families from diverse populations and a variety of psychosocial problems. It exposes students to techniques for initial engagement with families and orienting family members to the treatment process. Students learn family assessment and treatment interventions. Students have the opportunity to practice and apply clinical techniques in the classroom setting. The course emphasizes the importance of culturally competent practice with structurally and culturally diverse families. Students examine how personal and professional values affect their practice and learn models for ethical decision-making and intervention planning. Assigned readings, lectures and class discussions introduce students to specific family systems theories and their applicability to diverse client populations and psychosocial problems. Written assignments are used to evaluate a student’s understanding and integration of family systems theories and intervention techniques. These assignments are designed to also evaluate a student’s capacity to critically analyze these theoretical frameworks and their applicability to diverse family systems and structures. Classroom experiential exercises provide students with opportunities to apply family treatment techniques to improve their clinical engagement, assessment, and intervention skills when working with families. Feedback and evaluation from peers and the instructor provide students with an assessment of their clinical skill attainment and development when working with clients in a family treatment context.