PhD in Counseling
Specialization in Marital, Couple, and Family Counseling/Therapy
Miami Shores * Orlando
The Doctoral Program is CACREP accredited. The Council for Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP) is the premiere national accreditation for Counseling Programs.
 We are delighted by your interest in our Doctoral Program. The Counseling Program faculty adhere
to a practitioner / educator / investigator model of training.
Consistent with this approach is the program goal of graduating
students with expert knowledge regarding counseling theory and
practice, who possess a high level of competency in providing
professional services, who have the skills necessary to evaluate
research relevant to the profession, and who are committed to
evaluating their own clinical and programmatic interventions.
The mission of this doctoral program emphasizes the academic
tradition of educating and training doctoral students in those
sophisticated concepts that enhance their professional identity.
Graduates from this program will work with the client's presenting
problem, as it exists for the client, and focus on solutions
or actions that might help to resolve the problem. While the
specialization is in Marital, Couple and Family Counseling/Therapy,
there is also a strong emphasis on understanding normal development
throughout a person's life, as well as ways persons may respond
to challenges in those areas. Thus, the program emphasizes the
identification of strengths and a "wellness" viewpoint
rather than pathology.
Typically, Marital, Couple and Family Counselors/Therapists
may ask questions regarding family members' roles, patterns,
rules, goals, and stages of development. The patterns within
a family system are a part of treatment due to the likely influence
of that pattern on an individual's health or condition. Therefore,
the unit of treatment is no longer the person, even if only a
single person is interviewed. Rather, the unit of treatment is
the set of relationships in which the person is embedded.
Additionally, the field of Marital, Couple and Family Counseling/Therapy
has continued to evolve by including theories based on the postmodern
tradition. For example, narrative therapy focuses on the storied
lives of people and how the narratives they live, and the dominant
or societal views by which they are affected, influence them.
Solution-Focused therapy looks for the "exception," the
time the problem isn't a problem and works to reactivate patterns
that once worked but have been overwhelmed by the present situation.
Students will work with faculty with diverse theoretical orientations.
Thus, rather than receiving training in only one theoretical
orientation, students are exposed to a diverse base of knowledge,
and are encouraged to formulate, and articulate clearly, their
own counseling approach. Students will devote study to the understanding
of diverse cultural practices and will critically examine the
social practices, institutions, helping agencies, and other social
sites where disenfranchised and marginalized groups struggle
for greater control over their futures.
Our on-site counseling clinic, the Dr. Maureen Duffy Family Enrichment Center, while providing training experiences for our Doctoral students, also serves the mental health needs of the surrounding internationally diverse community. The faculty and students of the Counseling Program are committed to promoting not only individual wellness and development, but also relational and community wellness and development. The College Reach-Out Program (CROP), offers counseling services that focuses on enhancing students’ and families’ strengths and resources while also addressing factors outside of school that impact students’ abilities to pursue a college education.
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