MFT Program Accreditation

What is accreditation?

• Accreditation is an indication that a program meets certain standards put forth by an accrediting organization. Universities get a more general umbrella accreditation (like WASC), and then an MFT program at that university is technically accredited by WASC. However, MFT programs can pursue accreditation that is specific only to the program—such as COAMFTE or CACREP. Such a program would then be accredited by both WASC and COAMFTE, for example.

  • Wanna know more? The Fundamentals of Accreditation, by the Council for Higher Education Accreditation

What is COAMFTE or CACREP accreditation?

• COAMFTE

  • “The Commission on Accreditation for Marriage and Family Therapy Education (‘COAMFTE’ or ‘the Commission’) is the accrediting agency for marriage and family therapy education and training.

  • “COAMFTE's mission is to promote best practices for Marriage and Family Therapy educational programs through the establishment, review and revision of accreditation standards and policies, and the accreditation of graduate and post-graduate educational programs.”

• CACREP

  • The Council for the Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP) “accredits master’s and doctoral degree programs in counseling and its specialties.”

  • The mission of CACREP is to promote the professional competence of counseling and related practitioners through the development of preparation standards; the encouragement of excellence in program development; and the accreditation of professional preparation programs.”

In California, MFT programs can get accredited by either COAMFTE or CACREP (even though CACREP typically is more aligned with counseling/LPCC programs instead of MFT programs).

Is accreditation important when considering MFT programs?

There are two main reasons accreditation is an important consideration: educational standards and license portability.

• Educational Standards

  • Many think institution-wide umbrella accreditation is the bare minimum to signify that an institution is “real” and not some kind of scam. California disagrees—the State of California’s bare minimum standard is approval by the Bureau for Private Postsecondary Education (BPPE). Some will argue that program-specific accreditation indicates that a program has met an important standard for education in a particular field. If you agree that COAMFTE standards, for example, deliver the best MFT education, then you will likely agree with the statement, “COAMFTE accreditation is an indication of quality.” But not everyone in the field of marriage and family therapy believes that COAMFTE standards result in the best MFT education. These people are more likely to agree with the statement, “COAMFTE accreditation is an indication that the program has voluntarily taken extra steps to conform to COAMFTE standards,” but they may not agree that necessarily results in a better MFT education.

• License Portability and Employability

  • Specific accreditation becomes unquestionably important because some states and some employers require MFTs to have graduated from specifically accredited schools; for example, while California does not require that MFTs graduate from a COAMFTE-accredited program, there are many states that do have this requirement (but there are other states that don’t). There are also some states for whom CACREP accreditation is useful if you’re trying to get licensed there. So if a graduate is considering moving to another state in the future after graduation, portability of the graduate's degree is important to consider. I recommend that applicants research accreditation with a mind to future goals before committing to a program.

  • Things states often have requirements about that you will need to verify you meet in order to get licensed:

    • Accreditation status, or an education equivalent to an accreditation standards (as demonstrated by providing syllabi from your courses)

    • Number of hours of supervised clinical practice pre-degree (before you graduated)

    • Type of hours of pre-degree clinical practice (individual hours, child hours, relational hours, etc)

    • Supervisor qualifications for pre-degree experience (what license did they have, did they have AAMFT-approved supervisor designation, etc)

So … should you be looking for an MFT program accredited by the BBS?

Accreditation is not the same as approval. Neither the BBS nor the BPPE are accrediting bodies; therefore, no matter what a misinformed program representative may tell you, no MFT program is accredited by the BBS, or the BPPE. In California, MFT programs must be either:

• Nationally or regionally accredited by an agency recognized by the United States Department of Education, OR

• Accredited by COAMFTE, OR

• Approved by the BPPE.

Then they can be approved by the BBS as an MFT-degree-granting program that can lead to MFT licensure in California. Therefore, the BBS can (and has) approved MFT programs that:

• have both regional and program-specific accreditation (such as WASC and COAMFTE)

• have only regional accreditation (such as COAMFTE)

• have neither accreditation, but are approved by the BPPE.

If you want to get licensed as an MFT in California, you should look for a program that is approved by the BBS. If you want to get licensed as an MFT in California but you might want to move to another state in the future, you should look into the most current licensing standards in your future state before deciding how important accreditation should be in your decision-making. If you want to get licensed as an MFT in California and you have no intention of ever getting licensed anywhere else, you only need to look for a program that is approved by the BBS.

A new (as of 2020) disclosure requirement you should know about.

I highly recommend reading this article, but here’s the gist…

As of 7/1/2020, “all higher education institutions in receipt of federal financial aid are required to inform prospective students whether a degree program will qualify them to work in the state where they are located… In addition to general disclosures on their website, institutions are required to make direct disclosures to students. This means that prospective and enrolled students must be told in writing whether a degree program meets the educational requirements of the state where they are located. A student’s location must be determined by the institution and tracked over time. When an institution becomes aware that a student’s location has changed to a different state, it is required to provide a new disclosure within 14 calendar days.”

That means if you live in Arizona and are applying to the University of Southern California’s MFT program, USC must tell you in writing whether USC’s MFT program can get you to an MFT license in Arizona. If you move to Oregon while you’re in the program, USC must notify you in writing within 14 days of your move whether USC’s MFT degree can get you an MFT license in Oregon. Now, if you live in California and are applying to USC but you’re thinking about moving to Arizona in the future, my understanding is that USC is not required to tell you whether that will work out for you. BUT…since they need to be prepared to tell an Arizona-based student whether a USC MFT degree can get them licensed in Arizona, my guess is they will have this information, and they theoretically could give it to you. As this article says, a lot of programs didn’t know this was happening, so they’re not yet prepared to provide this required information. If they’re not prepared, they will say something like “we’re trying to figure out if our degree works in __________ state, but it’s undetermined right now.”

Some schools have already prepared this information, but I’m not sure how I feel about it. For example, Pepperdine has provided a document that indicates, for each state, whether Pepperdine’s MFT degree is a qualifying degree for the MFT license. But when I looked at Arizona, for example, this document suggests Pepperdine “Does Not Meet Requirements” for getting an MFT license in Arizona because “the program does not have the number of direct client hours required for the state of Arizona.” Pepperdine requires fewer direct client contact hours before graduation than the state of Arizona requires, so technically, yeah, Pepperdine “Does Not Meet Requirements.” But I have a hard time believing that means you can NEVER get licensed as an MFT in the state of Arizona with an MFT degree from Pepperdine. I suspect, if you graduate from Pepperdine and want to become an MFT in Arizona, you’ll either need to do some extra hours of supervised clinical hours, or wait until you’re fully licensed in California before applying for “licensure by endorsement.”

It’s a lot, I know.

So are COAMFTE programs the best programs? Should I just go to a COAMFTE program?

I have a lot of thoughts about this, so I wrote a whole thing here.