Synthesis Post

   During this blog project, I learned a variety of different aspects about my career occupation. A marriage and family therapist is a mental health professional who helps with problems such as mental health and substance abuse issues in family contexts, individual settings, or group therapy. Some issues include;

• Child and adolescent behavioral problems
• Depression and anxiety
• Domestic violence
• Marital conflicts
• Etc.

   I have learned about the different requirements the state of Michigan has for those planning to pursue a career as a marriage and family therapist. These requirements include:

• Minimum bachelors degree or doctorate degree
• At least 300 hours of direct clinical contact
• Out of 300, 150 must occur within family settings
• At least 60 hours of supervised clinical experience
• Course and research requirements 

   During this assignment I have also found out about a vast amount of websites, books, and video's that has provided me with a lot of useful information. For example the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy has informed me about what a marriage and family therapist does, the types of places a marriage and family therapist would provide their services, ethics for a marriage and family therapist, and much more. Videos such as the YouTube video titled "Interview with Marriage and Family Therapist, Tina Tessina", has informed me that the bulk of knowledge needed to have a successful career in this field , comes from hands on experience within the field, such as the  clinical supervised experience required. This blog has allowed me to understand the attitudes, personality characteristics, and dedication needed to attain my goal. For example, I will need to be a good listener, critical thinker, complex problem solver, etc. It has taught me about the skills needed for daily task I may face as a marriage and family therapist. For example, using spreadsheet software to conduct my notes on and keep track of work. And most importantly for me, I can now pin point, or detect a lot of different aspects of myself that I need to work on in order to be successful. For example, I learned that people will often air their dirty laundry and no matter how disturbing, I need to be able to practice emotional labor, such as suppressing my feelings because a lot of emotional labor comes with this occupation.
   The most helpful aspect of this blog project was the videos and informative websites. From these sources, I felt that I learned in a more hands on approach. When observing these sources I was able to understand information in a more effective manner. For example, when viewing a typical day of being a marriage and family therapist, u could actually see what the work environment looked liked opposed to imagining it. I found it interesting when observing marriage and family therapist interviews as well. Many of the websites provided me with simple steps to obtain my future degree. They also informed me on issues, advances, and basics about my career field, in which I found very interesting. When provided information in a simple way, it was more easier to understand and know my next moves in my college career. For example , when observing a website for the requirements to become a marriage and family therapist in the state of Michigan, I learned that I will need a bachelors degree in counseling and not in psychology which is a pretty good catch for me.
   The source that interested me the least, was the hands on aspect of the blog project. These aspects were very difficult for me because the lack of communication. I was unable to get into contact with a marriage and family therapist mist of the time which prevented me from getting a interview. It was also very challenging to find hands on experience in this field. I feel that this is because of the amount of confidentiality between a therapist and their client.
   The blog assignment has also contributed to my learning as a writer. For example, I have created a habit for making sure the websites and other sources are worthy of retaining information. I have also learned a lot of new ways of finding information by visiting the msu library website and finding news articles, books , scholarly journals, etc. Which has been really helpful with finding information about prompt posts.
   Overall, i have learned a lot from the blog project. It has provided me with a lot of helpful information about my career occupation and how I would need to go about to become a marriage and family therapist. It introduce me to a new way of learning about a marriage and family therapist, such as reading books, looking at video's, and searching through websii. I now feel that I am equipped with the necessary tools to find out more about my career fiwld , and any other information I  might need in the future on the road to success.
careersinpsychology.org/becoming-a-licensed-marriage-family-therapist-in-michigan/

www.allpsychologyschools.com/psychology-careers/marriage-and-family-therapy job-description/

Free Post #6: Marriage and Family Therapist Working Environments

  People with a marriage and family therapy degree work in a variety of work settings such as...

• Outpatient Care Centers, which is one of the highest levels of employment for marriage and family therapist in the united States. They are hired to treat children, adolescents, adulta , and seniors.
• Schools-  marriage and family therapist  work at all levels of the school system from treating families with troubled elementary students to counseling parents on how to deal with their teenager.
• The military- Marriage and family therapist are employed at clinical resource centers dedicated to assisting and supporting current service members, veterans, and their families. 
• Etc.

After learning about these different job settings, I feel that it would be helpful to know the language of a lot of different occupations since I could possibly work with some of these people. Its comforting yo know that there is a possibly to work in a variety of different places in case one does not work for me.

careersinpsychology.org/where-people-mft-degrees-work/

Free post #1: Interview with a Marriage and Family Therapist

    I viewed a YouTube video titled "Interview with Marriage and Family Therapist Tina Tessina". She talked about different aspects of being a marriage and family therapist and shred the most important aspects from her point of view. For example she stated that the hands on experience is what prepares you for the job more than education or any other thing you may participate in. She said hands on experience gives you the most help with the job. I found this really interesting because I never had hands on experience just yet and I believe I really need to participate in it. I was also surprised with the fact that marriage and family therapist are offered some hours of counseling themselves. This is to help them with their problems so they won't effect them during their clients counseling sessions.

Free post #10: The myths They Tell

    I found  this you tube video called "Dispelling Marriage and Family Therapy Myths" very interesting. I was not aware that there were so many unbelievable myths about my chosen career field. The fact that only 31% of problems dealt with in marriage and family therapy sessions are solved was very stunning to me. I guess its really true that you must forgive and try your best to move forward in most of your problems dealing with a spouse!!!
 

Prompt Post #10: Recognizing Truth

  I found a video titled "Dispelling Marriage and Family Therapy myths". There were a lot of different myths stated such as...

• You have to be rich to see a marriage and family therapist
• Therapy never ends
• You can only see a marriage and family therapist if you are married
• Your problems are usually solved after therapy
• Marriage and family tgerapist only deal with extreme situations

   Based on the knowledge I have obtained from recent blogs I can dispell most of these myths myself. For example, the myth that you can only see a marriage and family therapist if you are married. Marriage and family therapist work in different kinds of sessions. For example, in individual sessions, where they talk one on one with a certain individual having difficulties in everyday life. They may interact with a family as a whole depending on the family. But they also work with married couples but it is not limited to that option.
    Another example is the myth that marriage and family therapist only dealwith extreme situations. The truth is that marriage and family therapist work with situations as simple as family problems. Ranging from teenage rebellion to finacial issues. You do not have to be completley crazy, in which I find very interesting and hope to deal with in the near furure, to see a marriage and family therapist.

Free post #9: Qualifications and Training for MFT

I am some what aware of the steps needed to become a marriage and family therapist, for example I have to attend graduate school for a Master's degree. But I would like to get a more specific and better understanding of what is actually needed to complete this process.
According to the article " Training and Other Qualifications and Advancements for Marriage and Family Therapist ", education requirements vary by state and a masters degree is required for licensure. Accredited master degree programs include up to 60 hours of graduate study semester hours including a supervised internship.
To keep a licenses a marriage and family therapist would have to stay active. Meaning participating in things like workshops, personal studies, and graduate studies. A marriage and family therapist will also have to have some form of a counseling license required by all states.
I find this information more informing and direct. Now that know that there is a lot of extra schooling in training involved to become a marriage and family therapist and stay one.

Prompt Post #9: Recognizing Significance

    According to the news story " The Importance of a fathers in the family ", there is a real importance of having a father figure within the family unit. Salem reported that a fathers affection and increased involvement in thongs such as family activities, or being involved with the family in general, can add to the promotion of children's social and emotional development. Marriage and family therapist recognize this importance. This importance is one of the main goals of a marriage and family therapy session, which is keeping the family together and building relationships between members of families. For example, if a couple with children seperates, a marriage and family therapist would help those children develope relationships with each parent even though their parents have differences. This would enable both parents to be involved in their child's lives, benefiting the children for having both family figures. Marriage and family therapy is important to the family unit because it enables the family to stay together, communicate, and understand each other. This benefits the children and possibly the family as a whole.
myfox8.com/2015/03/03/the-importance-of-a-father's-in-the-family/

Prompt Post #8: Practicing Your Knowledge

   Marriage and family therapist often use spreedsheets including Microsoft word. Microsoft word is used to record notes on their counseling sessions. They document ideals, notes, and strategies that can help a relationship or family. Using Microsoft word to take notes is a good strategy because it can help a marriage and family therapist to see problems more clearly, and, as with any other notes, it can serve as a good reminder of sessions, especially if a therapist is counseling a lot of different families at one time.
   When using this basic skill, I did not have any trouble because of my comfortability with using this program. I am aware of all the steps to take to get to the program, and I am efficient in my use of tools to adjust my notes in a way that fits my needs and understanding. The only problem I have with using this program isy ability to type in fast speeds. I am not yet that comfortable with typing so I do not type very fast, which is something I feel I need to work on to improve my work as a therapist.

Free post # 8 : Family Systems Therapy Approches

   To find out how a marriage and family therapist would go about helping a family I decided to research some information on the different methods used to have effective therapy sessions and bring families together.
   A concept called Family system Therapy, based on Murray Bowen's family sysyem theory, views a family as an emotional unit, and suggests that an individuals behavior is a result and inseparable from their family.
   Family system therapies fall under different categories such as...

• Strategic family therapy, which examines a family's function. For example how they communicate with each other, or how they solve their family problems. It does this by evaluating the family's behavior outside of the therapy session.
• Structural family therapy looks at the relationships, behavior, and trends, inside the therapy session, in order to understand the functioning of the family.
• Intergenerational family therapy focuses its importance on the generational influences on the family and each individual of that family. When identifying these behavioral patterns from generations, it helps people to see that their problems has been intact within the family long before their current problem. 

This us a very interesting finding to me and rooting from this I will like to know how a therapist would go about choosing a method to use? Would any of these three aspects be able to help in any situation? 

www.goodtherapy.org/family-systems-therapy.html

Prompt Post #6: Evaluating Sources

According to the article "marriage and family therapist", marriage and family therapy is a very effective type of treatment in the mental health literature. I agree with this argument because according to research, family therapy has been linked to positive outcomes in individual and family functioning. From my findings, treatment is most effective when combining medication and counseling sessions. When patients are treated with only medication, you are only treating the surface and symptoms of their conditions, not finding the root of the problem. This is ineffective because when their is a lack of medication the patient will repeat their actions until they actually understand the problem. When only having counseling sessions with a patient is time consuming and hard to get quick  results. Marriage and family therapy allows an individual to realize their problem and condition, except it, and then find ways to improve their self. This helps them to abandon their unexpected behavior or habits and improve their overall health and life, making this an affective treatment

Free Post #7: Skills and Knowledge needed

I am interested and confused about the actual skills and knowledge used by marriage and family therapists during their daily jobs. I decided to conduct some research to find out what are the important skills and knowledge needed to have positive outcomes with my future sessions.

According to the article, Marriage and Family Therapist Career, marriage and family therapist should withhold a lot of different skills and knowledge to have effective outcomes with their clients. These different skills and knowledge includes;
• Social perceptiveness- Being aware of others reactions and understanding why they react as they do.
• Judgment and Decision Making- Considering the relative costs and benefits of potential actions to choose the most appropriate one.

• Service Orientation- Actively looking for ways to help people.
• Speaking- Talking to others to convey information effectively.
• Complex problem solving- Identifying complex problems an reviewing related information to develop and evaluate options and implement solutions.
• Critical thinking- Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions or approaches to problems.
• Writing- Communicating effectively in writing as appropriate for the needs of the audience.
• Science- Using scientific rules and methods to solve problems.

Knowing this information now, I have realized I have a lot to work on with myself as a person, and the knowledge needed to do my job.

www.mymajors.com/career/marriage-and-family-therapist/skills/

Prompt post #7: Contemplating Controversy

There is a lot of controversy in the field of psychology. The Nature vs. Nurture debate is one of the most enduring in this field. The main question is are human behaviors, ideals, and feelings innate or are they learned, and to what extent? Rene' Descartes created this view that these characteristics are in- born ideas that influence our approach to the world. Contrary to this belief, the British philosopher, Thomas Hobbes and John Locke pressed the role of experience and how it affects these characteristics. Locke suggested that the mind at birth is a "blank slate", in which experience fills it.
The nature debate believes that genetics and other natural traits, influence how a person will develop in the world. For example, if a parent is psychologically troubled, it will affect their child pertaining to behavior, personality, and other characteristics. The nurture debate argues that the people and environment a person is around will affect their development and how they relate to the world around them.

Prompt Post # 5: Observing Community

    To find out what is being done in the community here at MSU relating to my field, I researched an organization by the name of " The consortium for Multicultural Psychology Research (CMPR)". The organizations primary goal is to use psychological concepts, principles, and therories, and appply them to multicultural issues to get a better understanding of those issues. This is related to my field because their will be multicultural families to deal with and I will need to understand things from each family membersl's perspective. This research organization could benefit a lot of therapist rin their daily jobs.
    The organization has a website that explains their primary goal of their group along with many other things. It shows us the types of publications they have come up with and the research that they've found out about multicultural issues. It shows us many different research fellows in which they work with in developing these publications. They have a section for graduates who are study the multicultural issues in which they are providing grants to those students. They also have a section where someone can donate to their research program to help them further their research for multicultural issues.
   

Free post # 5: Fixing the Family

A marriag and family therapist serve as a guide for familes , they help them make their family stronger or bring them together. Families will always face problems and get into arguments based on jealousy, teenage rebellion, substance abuse, financial disagreements, etc. When beginning to help a family mend their issues to help their family functioning, a marriage and family therapist will first need to figure out what the problem is. When things are a little to heated, the family therapist would probably choose to speak with each member of the family separately and get a better understanding of each family member's perspective. But usually, they would like to speak with the family as a whole, to see how they are interacting with one another. For example, are they interrupting one another, not listening, are they rolling their eyes, etc. The marriage and family therapist job then is to just listen and observe each family member's body language. After the family is done pleading their case, then the family therapist can insert their own opinion to get the family to communicate effectively, so that they are able to understand their peers or partner and come up with solutions that will then benefit everyone.

Free Post #4: Getting Experience

I am really interested in going experience in my career field. I find it really hard to get hands on experience with marriage and family therapy sessions because of the extreme level of confidentiality. So to gain some type of experience, I believe that I will need to work with an array of different people. For example, children and adults of different backgrounds because after all that is the bulk of my career, working with different families. Internships at schools, hospitals, counseling centers, and boys and girls club's could help boost my resume for working with different types of people. Attending these types of jobs or internships could help me learn how to deal with children and adults and also help me with problem solving skills. Now knowing the types of jobs and internships to look for I wonder where will I start to get information on the job openings or internships?

Prompt Post #4: Considering Delivery and Style

    I read two different forms of writing which was a newspaper article called "Putting the Summertime to Work" by Karen Ann Cullotta and a scholarly article called "Abuse and Violence within Families and Family Therapist Response" by Judith Myers Avis. The newspaper article explained how planning family time in the summertime months can help rebuild your family by teamwork. A family activity that involves helping others and sharing with others, and gives a sense of emotional attachment, can help with the relationships between family members. The audience was for families and also marriage and family therapist who would like to fix broken families. The purpose of this article is to help families develop strategies to gain a stronger family or bring a family together. The style of delivery was very easy to read and understand. It was broken up into passages for every main point in which I found really helpful. It also included a picture of a family working together on an activity that required teamwork.

    The scholarly article explained how Judith herself felt that there should be a required course in treating violence and abuse in families into the marriage and family therapy program. It explained how there is a lot of abuse against the child and mother of families by the father, stepfather, brother, uncle, or the mothers boyfriend, because of the power men hold over women. She explained that when students understood the concept of power dynamics, relationship between power and gender, the emotional, psychological, and behavior consequences of abuse, they learned to assess incidents of violence and abuse within families. And therefore family Therapist could be of more help to these type of abusive situations. The audience is scholarly students and professors. The purpose was to provide other scholarly individuals with some evidence that this class taken was very beneficial to the future family therapist. The style of delivery was very hard to understand because of some of the terms used. It consisted of a lot of information in which I had to search for the main points. It included a very long bibliography at the end as well.

    I feel that the scholarly article is more trust worthy because it showed a lot of statistics. Since it is a scholarly article , I believe that there had to be a lot of evidence collected in order to write this article because it could later contribute to someone else's work. I feel that the newspaper article was just basically telling people a good strategy to rebuild and build a strong family system.

Free Post #3: Day-To-Day Activities Of A Marriage and Family Therapist

      I wanted to gain a feel of what a counseling session actually looked like when talking to a family or a individual. This video gave me insight of how the sessions actually looked, which presented a very positive and caring environment. I liked the fact that the client in the video was so open about her emotions to her therapist. This video also captured my image of how a session might look. There was a couch in which the clients sat on in the therapist was sitting in a chair taking notes. It showed the different task a marriage and family therapist will have to do such as file paper work and schedule meetings with their clients. the means of communication was through the phone which was really interesting and exciting to me because I thought clients and therapist would contact each other through email. Another aspect of the video that I found interesting was that even though people were already a marriage and family therapist, they still had to go through training which made them better at their job. This reassured me that I do not have to go into this profession knowing everything because there will still be training available for some things.


So You Want to Be a Marriage and Family Therapist

Free post #2: A different Route

    Marriage and Family Therapy does not have to be rooted in the discipline of psychology. I could take a different route and join a Marriage and Family therapy program. I found two programs of interest that are associated with Syracuse University and Hope International University. These programs train students on how to work with different people or families when dealing with difficult situations. These situations include...

• Mental Health Concerns
• Couples
• Families
• Etc.

    They are designed to help students meet requirements held by the American Association of Marriage and Family Therapy. There are different requirements to meet for different programs. Thus gives me insight into the possible routes I can take to reach my goal of becoming a marriage and family therapist. Finding out about these different programs helps me get a head start in finding the perfect option for me after I receive my undergraduate degree.

Prompt Post #2: Defining Ethics

According to the American Association For Marriage and Family Therapy, Marriage and Family Therapist are obligated to obide by a certain code of ethics. Their responsibility to clients include being...

• Non-Discriminate
• Informed consent
• Avoiding Multiple Relationships
• The prohibition of sexual intimacy with current/former clients and others
• Not abusing the Therapeutic relationship against the client
• Client Autonomy in decision making
• Written consent 
• Etc

This code corresponds with what I believe is right and wrong in a therapist workplace in a very accurate way. Family therapist are supposed to help people, no matter their race, ethnicity, gender, status, etc, every individual should be provided the same services. People should be informed on what the steps are to making them a better person and the consequences, rules, or risk that may arise to achieve that goal. When the client is lacking knowledge of the possible down falls that come along with things such as treatments, could cause conflict between the client and the therapist. The emotional stability of a therapist could be affected if they involve themselves in a more personal relationship with their client. One of the important values of a family therapist is to maintain your composure and your overall health even in the most extreme conditions and developing a closer than expected, or sexual relationship could make this value harder to maintain. The environment of a counseling session should always be a positive one. This will allow the client to feel comfortable and be willing to open up and share personal information. If you are very demanding on the types of decisions you feel they should make and abuse your power as the therapist, more than likely the client will feel as thought they can not vent to you because of your judgmental, and demanding ways and therefore makes the sessions "pointless". The more accurate way to go about this is to let the client make their own decisions, and you as the therapist, can inform them of the consequences that follow that decision.
    I am sure that most people understand what therapist should and should not do within a counseling session because of what is presented in the media or even from experience. For example, a therapist should not show discrimination towards any clients or they should not speak of your information without your approval to do so. A person will know if something that happened between them and their therapist is unlawful. I feel that professionals within this field often follow the code of ethics because if not followed they could potentially lose their job and license, as well as leave them with a lawsuit. Knowing and following the code of ethics will help me a lot with my future profession. It will allow me to do my job in the most efficient way possible. It will help keep the client and therapist relationship as professional as possible, not allowing any serious emotions, that could possible alter the clients judgments if me as a professional and vice versa. It will help to avoid conflict between me and my future clients as well, by stating what is legal and what is illegal so that me and my client have a mutual understanding of the whole process.

Source: https://www.aamft.org/iMIS15/AAMFT/Content/legal_ethics/code_of_ethics.aspx

Prompt Post #1: Asking Questions and Breaking Assumptions

    The two texts Finding your counseling career by Brooke B. Collison and Careers in Psychology, Opportunities In A Changing World, by Tara L. Kuther and Robert D. Morgan, was very useful. It explained to me a lot of mistakes people make when entering graduate school. For example, attending a school that does not participate in your chosen professions license. The text gave me a lot of advice on what to look for pertaining to internships and experience. For example, things that are good to participate in for internships would include mental health settings, boys and girls clubs, or even substance abuse centers. This gave me an ideal of what to look for when I volunteer or seek experience related to my chosen profession. It also gave me an ideal of what types of research to participate in, which will later come to my advantage when applying for graduate school. Some good topics in research would include study of abnormal behavior, specific disorders, for example bipolar disorder, or psychopathy research. I am really surprised by these findings because I am interested in the majority of the materials listed.

    Many Counselors and Marriage and Family Therapist identify some characteristics of personality to be very important and valuable. A person interested in a counseling career should be a good listener, open-minded, able to hear strong emotions expressed, positive and optimistic about possibilities, and be able to take care of your own physical, emotional, and mental well-being, along with many other important characteristics. ( Collison, Brooke. Finding Your Counseling Career. 2010). I am delighted to receive this information because I am convinced that I have these characteristics or I am willing to adapt to them in order to pursue my goal of becoming a Marriage and Family Therapist.

    The text also helped me to better understand how to reach my goal. It presented me with different steps and ways to pursue my goal. For example, how to look for experience and what, exactly, to look for. It taught me that a major in psychology is not the only route to becoming a marriage and family therapist. I could also find a program that only specializes in marriage and family therapy, which could provide me with hands on experience and allow me to get a better understanding of a counseling career as a whole. It also informed me of the types of practitioners associated with counseling careers. Now I have come to understand that I do not have to own a private practice in order to do my job, but I can become a part of an organization and receive pay based off of how many clients I serve.

    There was some information that I was familiar with as well. For example, I am aware of the fact that to become a family therapist, I am required to attend graduate school. And for me to be able to meet this requirement, things which include a high grade point average, some experience, and meeting the  requirements of that school, are highly important. But I was not aware that some graduate schools requires a license in a specific area in order to be accepted into that school. This pushes me to start finding out more about graduate schools and their different requirements because they vary depending on states.

    I found most of the text really beneficial and it gave me grounds on where to start so that I am prepared for jobs and graduate school. It also helped me gain a feel  for the types of research and experience I should be interested in for experience pertaining to my chosen profession.  It gave me a variety of common mistakes to watch for and tips on how to avoid them in the future. It provided me with things that needs to be completed before entering graduate school, in which I found very helpful.