SFBPRAK Practical Training in Family Therapy Course description

In this course, the student practice family therapy through guided practice, and attend lectures and workshops tied to the various family therapeutic approaches. The course runs over five semesters with a total of 300 guided practice hours over three semesters.

Presentation of the various family therapeutic approaches and exercises focused on these approaches is a mainstay of the course. The student gains insight into the development of the family therapeutic tradition and its place in the Norwegian welfare system. In the practice placement component of the course, supervised by experienced family therapists, the student is expected to practise family therapeutic approaches to change work in families. Throughout the course, the student works to integrate personal therapeutic development with theoretical, research-based knowledge, and experience from the field.     

Police documentation

The student is required to provide police documentation at the start of the course, cf. Regulation regarding admission to higher studies, § 6-1 and § 6-2.

The student must have passed courses SFB5110 Issues of Child and Adolescent Mental Health and SFB4100 Basics in Systemic Perspectives, before starting practical training.

After completing the course, the student should have the following overall learning outcomes defined in terms of knowledge, skills and general competence

Knowledge

The student has achieved

• advanced knowledge about the family therapy field and central therapeutic approaches
• deep insight into what works in therapy - including evidence-based practice
• broad knowledge about how personal and professional matters influence each other in the therapeutic session, as well as the consequences of this dynamic on the therapeutic self in relation to other roles

Skills

The student knows how to

• apply relevant perspectives, family therapeutic approaches and practical methodology in change work
• participate in family work in various therapeutic functions, be it main therapist, co-therapist and reflecting team
• work and accommodate complex issues in families
• work cross-sectionally and maintain the participation of families in the work

General competence

The student is able to

• work towards change by applying various central family therapeutic approaches to work with families and individuals, in consultations, supervision and lectures
• reflect over ethical considerations and act according to ethical principles in the work with families
• reflect over own therapeutic position and be able to consider personal aspects of relations in meeting with others in professional settings

The course applies different learning approaches, combining lectures, workshops, group work and clinical training.

The practical training component runs from the third semester, through the three following semesters. 100 hours per semester, with a total of 300 hours.  

The practical therapy training consists of immersion in different aspects of therapeutic work under the tutelage of experienced family therapists in approved clinical settings. An individual midway meeting between the supervisor and student is carried out each semester. Each placement setting organizes practice training according to a common plan of progress. OsloMet is responsible for the practical training placement and approval of relevant places. Approval of placement must be given before commencement of clinical training.  

The following coursework requirements must have been approved in order for the student to take the exam:

• The practical training period of 300 hours must be approved before students may sit the final exam. 

• Attendance in lectures and workshops is compulsory, with minimum 80 percent participation. If absence exceeds 20 percent, but less than 30 percent, students can compensate by submitting an additional coursework requirement. The maximum absence limit is 30 percent per academic year. Students whose absence exceeds 30 percent, may not compensate by submitting coursework requirement and may not continue to the next year of the program, nor register for the final exam. 

• Before starting practice: The student must submit a written work of three pages (+/- 10%). 

The coursework requirement must be approved before the student can begin his/her practical training period. Individual feedback is given on the work requirement and it is possible to rework the work requirement once if it is not approved.

• At the end of the practical training period: The student submit a practical training report of 8 pages (+/- 10 percent) with reflections over learning outcomes relating to therapeutic development. Work on the report should be done throughout the clinical training placement, and the report should form the basis for individual midway meetings with the clinical training supervisor. The clinical training report must be approved by the clinical training supervisor and signed by both the clinical training supervisor and the student. The clinical training report must be approved before the student's clinical training period is approved. 

Preparation for final exam (sixth semester): 

The oral examination will be based on a 15-minute excerpt from a film recording from the student's clinical work, where the student is the main therapist. In the family conversation, which is filmed for the exam, there must be at least two generations in the family present. The coursework requirements related to the mutable exam must be handed in on an encrypted memory stick at a specified deadline in Canvas. The coursework requirements are the following:

• 15-minute excerpt from a film recording from the student's clinical work

• A written presentation of the role-play video recording. This presentation must not exceed one A4 page with single line spacing.

• A verbatim transcript of the dialogue in the clip.

• A genogram (family tree). Drawn on a separate sheet, the genogram must provide information about at least three generations.

The student cannot sit the exam before these coursework requirements are approved.

The purpose of the exam form is to give the student an opportunity to show:

• good skills in clinical intervention

• ability to link theory to practice

• own professional (theoretical and clinical) development throughout the educational period

It is important that the student shows his/her application of professional thinking in practice. Furthermore, he/she should show the ability to reflect on what is happening in the "clinical moment" and to link this to the treatment process.

The exam in the course is a 60 minutes individual, oral exam, based on the written coursework requirements, the video recording and the curriculum from the three academic years in the master degree. 

Own notes.

Pass/Fail.

One internal and one external examiner.