PSYC342

Description

Students in this practicum learn to assess and treat the full spectrum of mildly to severely distressed couples. The treatment approach emphasizes fostering intimacy, closeness, and mutual acceptance, while at the same time teaching useful communication and problem-solving skills. Students treat both married and unmarried couples as long as they are currently living together and are not violent. Depending on the number of students in the practicum, students either treat couples as part of a two-person team or as the sole therapist. Class time is devoted to group supervision, discussions of the broader issues of couple therapy and a weekly journal club. Students should expect to see between two and three couples over the course of the one-year practicum, with each course of therapy being approximately 20 to 25 sessions. Students in the practicum learn about the correlates and predictors of marital distress, how to assess a couple's level of distress and commitment, how to formulate and test therapeutic hypotheses over the course of treatment, and how to conduct a powerful and effective approach to couple therapy. Students should expect to be proficient and capable of proceeding quite independently by the end of this one year practicum.