Couple and Family Therapy (Non-Thesis) (M.Sc.A.) (60 credits)
Offered by: Social Work (Faculty of Arts)
Degree: Master of Science Applied
Program credit weight: 60
Program Description
This master's-level clinical program (non-thesis) emphasizes clinical understanding and training in couple and family therapy applicable to multidisciplinary clinical professionals in which family systems and related theories can inform clinical practice. The general objectives of the program are to train clinical professionals in couple and family psychotherapy by integrating contemporary theory, research competence and varied approaches to therapy in the understanding and treatment of families today. It will produce graduates with competencies in the assessment and treatment of families across the life cycle with skills that can be applied to specialized psychotherapy practice in health and community settings. Program graduates will fulfil the requirements for both the Couple and Family Therapy permit (OTSTCFQ) and the Psychotherapy permit (OPQ).
Note: For information about Fall 2025 and Winter 2026 course offerings, please check back on May 8, 2025. Until then, the "Terms offered" field will appear blank for most courses while the class schedule is being finalized.
Required Courses (57 credits)
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| CAFT 600 | Couple and Family Therapy Pre-Practicum. | 3 |
Couple and Family Therapy Pre-Practicum. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. The development of practical skills in the area of couple and family therapy. Introduction to the concept of common factors in the psychotherapy process, assessment, foundational therapeutic competencies and the application of orientation specific empirically supported treatment competencies. | ||
| CAFT 601 | Anti-Oppressive Practice in Couple and Family Therapy. | 3 |
Anti-Oppressive Practice in Couple and Family Therapy. Terms offered: Summer 2025 The influence of race, culture, class, ethnicity, immigration, sexual orientation and gender in the assessment and treatment processes of couple and family therapy. | ||
| CAFT 602 | Advanced Assessment in Couple and Family Therapy. | 3 |
Advanced Assessment in Couple and Family Therapy. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Integration of models of psychopathology and assessment into couple and family therapy. Focus will be on formulation of clinical impressions, differential systemic models of assessment, models and measures of systemic assessment and the intersection between classification of mental disorders, and relational/systemic formulations of mental health and mental illness. | ||
| CAFT 603 | Research Methods for Couple and Family Therapists. | 3 |
Research Methods for Couple and Family Therapists. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Essential research skills for couple and family therapists, including evaluation of clinical research literature and the basics in designing and analyzing qualitative and quantitative research with a particular emphasis on understanding the relevance of research for clinical practice. | ||
| CAFT 604 | Sex, Sexuality, and Contemporary Issues . | 3 |
Sex, Sexuality, and Contemporary Issues . Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Couples and families dealing with challenges living in contemporary society. Intersections between diversity and mental health, gender roles and identities, separation/divorce including custody and access, single parent, reconstituted and same sex families, inter-cultural families, legal and family issues in adoption and foster families. | ||
| CAFT 605 | Advanced Family Treatment Across the Lifespan. | 3 |
Advanced Family Treatment Across the Lifespan. Terms offered: Summer 2025 Advanced practice in four core models of family therapy in relation to problems pertaining to children, adolescents, and adults from middle adulthood to later life; four clinical models. Clinical models include: EFT-humanistic, cognitive behavioural family therapy, psychodynamic and systemic family therapy. | ||
| CAFT 606 | Internship 1 in Couple and Family Therapy. | 3 |
Internship 1 in Couple and Family Therapy. Terms offered: Summer 2025 The first portion of the internship consists of direct contact with clients, clinical supervision, a didactic seminar series, psychotherapy rounds and complementary clinical activities. Students will participate in a series of seminars on advanced systemic and communication models. Students will participate in an integrative seminar designed to facilitate the integration of their advancing knowledge and clinical skills. | ||
| CAFT 607 | Legal, Ethical and Professional Issues in C & FT. | 3 |
Legal, Ethical and Professional Issues in C FT. Terms offered: Summer 2025 Practicing in a legally-sound and ethically-informed manner as a couple and family therapist. Focus on ethical decision making processes, codes of ethical conduct, legislative and regulatory frameworks for practice, specific laws, regulations and standards. | ||
| CAFT 608 | Human Development Across Lifespan: Couple & Family Therapy. | 3 |
Human Development Across Lifespan: Couple Family Therapy. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Advanced human development specific to the needs of a couple and family therapist. Focus on child, adolescence and early adult development, human sexuality, developmental impact of divorce, remarriage, birth, adoption and death on members of a family. | ||
| CAFT 609 | Advanced Couple Therapy. | 3 |
Advanced Couple Therapy. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. The four core modalities of couple therapy practice, EFT-humanistic, cognitive behavioural, psychodynamic and systemic, and communications, including common factors and models integrating the lens of gender, race, poverty and social class, and multiculturalism into couple treatment. | ||
| CAFT 610 | Biological Foundations of Behaviour for C&FTs. | 3 |
Biological Foundations of Behaviour for CFTs. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. The biology and neuropsychology of couple and family therapy. Neural physiology and pathophysiology, development, anatomy and physiology of the human sensory, motor, emotional, perceptual and cognitive systems, formulation of clinical impressions, and applications and limitations of biological and psychological treatments will be explored. | ||
| CAFT 611 | Internship 2 in Couple and Family Therapy. | 6 |
Internship 2 in Couple and Family Therapy. Terms offered: Summer 2025 The second portion of the internship consists of direct contact with clients, clinical supervision, a didactic seminar series, psychotherapy rounds and complementary clinical activities. Students will participate in a series of seminars geared to providing further didactic training in the legal and organizational aspects and ethics and deontology as applied to specific case examples being experienced by students in their internship experiences. Also, participation in an integrative seminar designed to facilitate the integration of advancing knowledge and clinical skills. | ||
| CAFT 612 | Internship 3 in Couple and Family Therapy. | 6 |
Internship 3 in Couple and Family Therapy. Terms offered: Summer 2025 The third portion of the internship consists of direct contact with clients, clinical supervision, a didactic seminar series, psychotherapy rounds and complementary clinical activities. In this course, students will participate in a series of seminars provided by faculty experts on the four models of treatment: (Humanistic, Systemic) cognitive behavioural couple and family therapy (CBMT), attachment focused and mentalizing based therapy for couples and families (Psychodynamic) and systemic family therapy (Systemic). Students will participate in an integrative seminar designed to facilitate the integration of their advancing knowledge and clinical skills. | ||
| SWRK 610 | Family Treatment. | 3 |
Family Treatment. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. An advanced seminar on techniques and practice of current therapies. | ||
| SWRK 622 | Understanding and Assessing Families. | 3 |
Understanding and Assessing Families. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. The changing family system and overview of recent advancements in family assessment. Family developmental and systemic applications, with attention to the heterogeneity and diversity of the post-modern family, integrating contextual, gender, cultural and relational perspectives through the evaluation process. | ||
| SWRK 623 | Couple Therapy. | 3 |
Couple Therapy. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. The goal of this course is to introduce students to the major models of couple therapy. The course will be divided into four core theoretical approaches to couple therapy: integrated systemic therapy for couples, emotionally focused therapy for couples, mentalizing based couple therapy, and cognitive behavioural marital therapy. Common factors will be explored such as communication skills, therapeutic alliance and client/therapist characteristics, in couple treatment. Models will be presented integrating the lens of gender, race, poverty, social class, and multiculturalism into couple treatment. | ||
| SWRK 630 | Adult Mental Health. | 3 |
Adult Mental Health. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. The objective of this course will be to familiarize students with theories of psychopathology including diagnostic systems, the history of the study of psychopathology and treatment of mental illness. Emphasis will be placed on understanding abnormal behaviour in adults (e.g. anxiety and posttraumatic stress disorders, substance abuse, psychotic disorders and affective disorders and somatization disorders). | ||
Complementary Courses (3 credits)
3 credits from the following:
| Course | Title | Credits |
|---|---|---|
| CAFT 613 | Couple and Family Therapy Internal Practicum. | 3 |
Couple and Family Therapy Internal Practicum. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. This course will provide opportunity for the development of practice skills in the area of Couple and Family Therapy within an internal clinic setting to prepare students for integration into external clinical internship sites. Students will participate, as observers and clinicians, in clinical research, and clinical practice with members of the community, within the McGill Couple and Family Therapy Clinic. The professor, within the internal clinic, will provide opportunities for in-depth clinical training and supervision. | ||
| EDPC 503 | Intersectional Relationships and Sexualities. | 3 |
Intersectional Relationships and Sexualities. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Situated in sexuality studies and education this course explores intra and interpersonal relationships through examining the intersections of sexuality with a diversity of identities, expressions and communities. The course addresses the ways in which current and emerging technologies influence and inform understandings of sexuality and the resulting effect on how people negotiate sexual relationships. | ||
| SWRK 621 | Seminar on Trauma and Resilience. | 3 |
Seminar on Trauma and Resilience. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Examination of the concepts of trauma and resilience within a comparative and international context. Exploration of theory, research, and practice interventions concerning trauma and resilience, both nationally and globally. Analysis of the ways in which culture, ethnicity, gender, class, and age shape experiences of trauma and recovery. | ||
| SWRK 628 | Violence against Women. | 3 |
Violence against Women. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Discussion of the psychological, social and political factors which create and maintain a society where male violence against the women they love occurs. A feminist theoretical perspective will be developed and analyzed. Treatment approaches will be considered focussing on interventive strategies to help both the battered and the batterers. | ||
| SWRK 635 | Advanced Clinical Seminar: Use of Self. | 3 |
Advanced Clinical Seminar: Use of Self. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Psychological selves in relation to the work done with clients, including psychoanalytic theory, object relations, attachment theory, transference. | ||
| SWRK 655 | Seminar on Aging. | 3 |
Seminar on Aging. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Advanced graduate seminar which focuses on a critical examination of historical and contemporary theories and practice models in gerontological social work. | ||
| SWRK 657 | Child and Adolescent Mental Health . | 3 |
Child and Adolescent Mental Health . Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Canadian mental health policies and practices related to children and adolescents, including historical trends in the conceptualization of mental illness/wellness, and foundations of child/adolescent DSM diagnoses and best practice approaches. | ||
| SWRK 668 | Living with Illness, Loss and Bereavement. | 3 |
Living with Illness, Loss and Bereavement. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. This seminar addresses the psycho-social concerns of patients and family members living with illness and/or non-bereavement loss. An interdisciplinary theoretical perspective is combined with clinical practice interventions. Special attention will be given to the role of the social worker. | ||
| SWRK 669 | ||
Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. | ||
| SWRK 670 | Seminar on Caregiving. | 3 |
Seminar on Caregiving. Terms offered: this course is not currently offered. Critical engagement with existing knowledge claims in the social work literature on caregiving and examination of the impact of policy and practice on the lives of caregivers. Special emphasis is placed upon advances in social work practice with older people and people with disabilities. | ||