Individual Courses
Individual Courses
CFR offers non-matriculating students the opportunity to take courses in our Postgraduate Certificate Program in Marriage and Family Therapy.
Register for Individual Courses!
Courses may be taken individually for Continuing Education (CE) credit for Master’s level (or above) mental health professionals. Participants are awarded 30 CEs per 10-week course for $1,080* and 15 CEs per 5-week courses for $540*, contingent upon 100% class attendance.
*Prices are subject to change from year to year.
Please email Michelle Serious, Academic Administrator, regarding rates for current CFR students, staff, and alumni.
1st Quarter Courses
Systems Theory and Couples Therapy
Instructor: Rabbi Julie Greenberg
Dates: Mondays, September 9, 2024– November 11, 2024
Time: 9:00 am – 12:00 pm
This course aims to provide a basic understanding of the main theoretical constructs underlying the major systemic models of couples and family therapy. Discussion will focus on the definition and application of the major concepts of each theory to systemic practice. In addition, the course will provide basic information about intervention strategies specific to couples therapy. The course will focus on three areas of systems therapy. First, the student will learn how to view the couple or family as a system without losing sight of individuals composing systems. Secondly, ways of engaging clients and performing the clinical interview will be discussed. Thirdly, several approaches to changing systems will be reviewed. This review will examine both general approaches to therapy and specific treatment of some of the more common relationship problems. The course will also have an experiential exponent. This component will examine each participant’s style and approach to marital and family therapy, particularly around joining, engaging, and establishing the therapeutic alliance. It will concentrate on the use of self to accomplish this goal.
Research in Couple and Family Therapy
Instructor: Matthew McCrickard, Ed.D.
Dates: Fridays, September 13, 2024 – November 15, 2024
Time: 9:00 am – 12:00 pm
This course explores what it means to be a research-informed clinician within the context of CFT approaches and has the goal of supporting students in becoming discerning consumers of research. It promotes the acquisition of skills needed to acquire, critically evaluate, and integrate research findings into clinical decision-making through collaborative exploration of research on common factors in psychotherapy and CFT in particular, outcome and process research related to various systemic models, and patient-focused research that monitors treatment progress. The course encourages students to use empirically supported treatments and assessment tools as a foundation for the evolution of their clinical skills. Students will learn to value and integrate multiple sources of empirical evidence, from research as well as first-hand clinical observations and patient feedback, and develop a nuanced understanding of the advantages and risk.
2nd Quarter Courses
Foundations in Systemic Therapy
Instructor: Susanne Flood
Dates: Mondays, November 18, 2024 – February 10, 2025
Time: 9:00 am – 12:00 pm
While models of Marital and Family Therapy are established on the foundation of theoretical concepts that support the practice of varied clinical approaches, there are clinical practices and theoretical formulations that are common to all systemic therapies. This course will highlight and define the common practices that are foundational to systemic practice. Didactic material, tapes of therapy and in class exercises will help explicate both the overt meaning and the experiential impact of these common clinical approaches to systemic therapy. In addition, this course will explore how different approaches with the same clients yield positive outcomes and how systemic therapists benefit from an integrative perspective that focuses on pathways of change that are suited specifically to the clients’ frame of reference and not bound by models.
Included in the class instruction will be an introduction to the use of Genograms in MFT. Distinctions between process and outcome will be reviewed with an emphasis on learning process-based interventions. The class will compare and contrast the following treatment approaches: Cognitive Behavioral Marital Therapy, Narrative Therapy, Collaborative Couples Therapy, Emotionally Focused Therapy, Affective Reconstruction Therapy, Internal Family Systems, and Accelerated Experiential-Dynamic Psychotherapy.
Systemic Sex Therapy 2
Instructor: Tessa Kinsley and Ben Rathsmill
Dates: Wednesdays, December 4, 2024, to February 19, 2025 (no class December 25, 2024, and January 1, 2025)
Time: 9:00 am – 12:00 pm
Systemic sex therapy 2 is the second of two 30-hour courses concentrating on various aspects of Sexology and Sex Therapy, viewed through the lens of the Intersystems Approach, a comprehensive, intimacy-based model, in which sexual issues are considered not only from an individual perspective, but also within the wider contexts of the family, the intimate relationship, and cultural, environmental, and other systems.
The topics covered in the course include, but are not limited to: general principles of sex therapy as well as more specific CBT and alternative approaches and interventions; the impact and use of technology in relationship to sex and intimacy; the interplay between sexual and mental health; physical issues which impact sex; sexual diversity, gender variance, transgender phenomena, alternative lifestyles, sexual minorities, and preconceptions about normalcy. Other subjects include sexual compulsivity, sexual aversion and asexuality.
The professional development of the Couple/Sex Therapist continues to be accentuated by focusing on: diversity factors, therapist sexual value system, comfort, integrity, ethics, knowledge, non-judgmental attitude, language, confidentiality, etc. Ongoing consideration continues to 1) the self of the therapist, and to 2) using a decolonizing lens when considering how “normal” sexual functioning is defined and who is defining it; as well as to 3) alternative forms of sexual expression; and 4) emerging definitions and forms of intimate relationships.
The course incorporates didactic presentations, discussion of reading materials, case presentations, role-play, and audio-visual demonstrations such as films and Internet presentations. In addition, topics related to the self of the therapist (sexual, ethnic, ethical value systems, comfort, knowledge, rapport, non-judgmental attitude, language, confidentiality, etc.) are emphasized through reaction papers and group discussions.
Diversity, Social Justice, and the Practice of Family Therapy
Instructor: Rabbi Julie Greenberg
Dates: Fridays, November 22, 2024 –February 10, 2025
Time: 9:00 am – 12:00 pm
The goals of this course are (1) to deepen understanding of the social dynamics of power, privilege and oppression in personal, interpersonal and political contexts; (2) to examine ways in which these dynamics affect human experience, and more specifically, the therapeutic relationship; (3) to develop awareness and sensitivity to clients’ religion, family structure, gender identity, race, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, culture and physical ability; and (4) to develop clinical skills relating to systemic issues such as poverty and racism that affect clients.
To apply for enrollment in an individual course, please complete the form below.
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