General Family Therapy Post-Baccalaureate Certificate

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Post-Baccalaureate Certificate

Description of Program

The Post-Baccalaureate Certificate in MFT program is designed for students who have completed their bachelor’s degree and are seeking academic expertise or to meet state-level requirements for licensure through a graduate level certificate program. In order to earn a Post-Baccalaureate Certificate, students must complete four courses (a total of 12 credit hours*) within the chosen Post-Baccalaureate Certificate program. There are four recommended courses for this certificate program, however, students can customize this certificate program as described below. Students must complete all four NCU courses with a cumulative GPA of 3.0 or better in order to receive the certificate.

*Note: The Marriage and Family Sciences Trauma Studies Post-Baccalaureate certificate requires completion of 18 credit hours

Click here for potential career opportunities within the Post-Baccalaureate Certificate.

Basis for Admission

Admission to the Post-Baccalaureate Certificate program requires a conferred bachelor’s level or higher degree from a regionally or nationally accredited academic institution and an interview with the Department Chair or Program Director (for those who will be doing clinical courses as a part of the certificate, a background check is also required).

Post-Baccalaureate Certificate Transfer into a Master’s Degree Sequence

Coursework completed within a Post-Baccalaureate Certificate program may be applied towards the master’s program.
Applying Post-Baccalaureate coursework towards a master’s degree is contingent upon coursework and degree relevance under the most current master’s degree program version.

Specialization coursework completed as part of a master’s degree, where a degree was conferred, cannot be applied towards a Post-Baccalaureate Certificate program. However, a Post-Baccalaureate Certificate can be completed as part of master’s coursework, assuming the student officially applies for the Post-Baccalaureate Certificate prior to completing the fourth course in the Post Baccalaureate Certificate series.

Time to Completion

NCU allows 2 years to complete all certificate programs.

The median time to completion for this program is 12 months.

Time to completion varies depending upon the pace in which a student completes courses and the number of transfer credits accepted. As most NCU students are working adults, balancing educational, professional, and personal commitments, our academic and finance advisors will work with you to develop a program schedule that works best for your needs.

Students following the preferred schedule designed by the Dean for this program, and applying no transfer credits, can expect to finish in as little as 10 months.

General Family Therapy

The General Family Therapy certificate program is designed for mental health professionals and others that are interested in learning about individual, couple, and family therapy from a systems theory perspective. It is designed to assist in developing greater expertise in MFT or to meet specific licensure requirements. Students may complete the recommended courses listed below or they may select any four master’s level courses (with the exception of MFT 5101 ).

Note: Students who have made application for licensure are encouraged to verify with state licensure divisions or boards that the courses they select will meet the specific state requirements before enrolling in this certificate program.

In order to be eligible for clinical work (if needed), General Family Therapy (GFT) Certificate students need to demonstrate passing grades in all pre-requisite (or equivalent) courses from an accredited university. The six content areas for pre-requisite coursework include: one course in theoretical foundations, one course in professional ethics, one course in clinical assessment, one course in diagnosis/psychopathology, and two courses in treatment methods/models of therapy/counseling. GFT Certificate students will need to provide a copy of their transcripts to confirm successful completion (passing grades) of these pre-requisite courses.

Specialization Courses – 12 credit hours

Recommended courses for a foundation in MFT principles and concepts (for those not needing specific courses for licensure). If the student needs the course work for licensure, they will determine the courses during an interview with a program administrative faculty member.