Program History
The AU MFT MS program is fully accredited by the Commission on Accreditation for Marriage and Family Therapy Education (COAMFTE). The Auburn University MFT Programs’ initial accreditation occurred on September 01, 1979. Current accreditation occurred on May 1, 2018, to expire on October 01, 2024. The program is completing its eighth accreditation cycle with COAMFTE, with the current re-accreditation process occurring from October 1, 2024, to April 1, 2026.
The Auburn University MFT program has a rich history and a prominent place in Alabama's marriage and family therapy growth. The MFT program began in the early 1970s. The founding faculty member was Norma Hodson, Ph.D., AAMFT Clinical Member, Fellow, and Alabama's first AAMFT Approved Supervisor. At that point, she was the lone faculty member, training only a few students. One of the first MFT graduates was Mary Anne Armour, M.S., who remained at Auburn as an early clinical, non-tenure-track faculty member. Later, Ms. Armour founded the accredited MFT program at Mercer University in Georgia. Drs. Hodson, Dr. Craig Everett, the Program’s first official Director, Dr. Sandra Halperin, and Ms. Armour rapidly moved the program toward accreditation. Both Drs. Everett and Halperin were graduates of the Florida State University MFT program, directed at the time by Dr. William Nichols. Dr. Nichols was developing the COAMFTE accreditation standards at that time, assisted by Dr. Everett. Emeritus Program Director, Dr. Smith, was a student in the program during its initial accreditation in 1979.
Dr. Connie Salts became the Program Director in 1985 and served in that capacity for 20 years. She served with Dr. Tom Smith and multiple faculty members across the years, including Dr. Craig Smith, who later became the St. Louis University MFT Doctoral Program Director. Dr. Scot Algood who became the Department Head at Utah State University, and Dr. Mark White who became the Department Chair for National University, an online university training Marriage and Family Therapists. Dr. Scott Ketring joined the MFT faculty in 1999 and has remained with the Auburn Faculty. Thus, over the last 40 years, three faculty members have directed the Auburn MFT program, providing continuity and a historical perspective of leadership within the Program, the state, and nationally.
After the retirement of Connie Salts in 2004, Tom Smith, Ph.D., LMFT, became the Program Director (PD) Auburn University Marriage and Family Therapy Center (MFT Center) until 2019. Dr. Smith has been a member of the AU MFT faculty since 1985 and was designated as Emeritus, Program Director, and Associate Professor in Marriage and Family Therapy in August 2019. The other program faculty have been Margaret Keiley, Ed.D., LMFT, Director of Clinical Research, and Scott Ketring, Ph.D. LMFT. Dr. Keiley was a member of the AU MFT faculty from 2005 until she transitioned to HDFS faculty in 2017. Dr. Scott Ketring, transitioned to Program Director in 2018, overlapping with Dr. Smith for one year as Co-Director of the MFT Program and Center. Lauren Ruhlman, Ph.D. LMFT, joined him as MFT faculty from 2017-2022. Joshua Novak, Ph.D., LMFT, was hired in 2019, followed by Brian Gillis, Ph.D., LMFT, in 2023. The three core MFT faculty members are all AAMFT Clinical Fellows, AAMFT Approved Supervisors, and LMFTs in Alabama. Tom Smith, Ph.D., continues to serve as an emeritus faculty member occasionally teaching and supervising in the program.
Mission, Goals, and SLO’s
Mission Statement of the AU Marriage and Family Therapy Program
The mission of the Auburn University Marriage and Family Therapy Program is to enhance human well-being and quality of life worldwide through the training of multi-culturally informed, ethically competent marriage and family therapists. Graduates will be prepared to provide relational/systemically based therapy to individuals, couples, and families and produce evidence of their effectiveness. Graduates will gain clinical, research, and scholarship experiences to prepare for admission to a doctoral program of their choosing.
Educational Objectives
The establishment of the AU MFT Program’s educational outcomes follows the following Professional Marriage and Family Therapy Principles:
Overall Program Goals for the AU MFT Program:
Program Goals, Student Learning Outcomes (SLO), and Targets for the AU MFT Program:
The Auburn MFT faculty have identified program goals, student learning outcomes (SLOs), and targets that are believed to facilitate excellent evidence-based practice strategies designed to train MFTs to provide multiculturally informed and ethically competent clinical services. The competencies are listed by domain.
Program Goal 1: Graduates can apply their knowledge of relational/systemic theories, human development, and various MFT approaches to develop an effective, personalized therapy approach.
SLO-1: Develop a relational/systemic theoretical foundation accounting for developmental issues that informs treatment delivery for individuals, couples, and families (SLO-1).
TARGET-1: 80% of the cohort will receive a mean score of 2.5 (of 4) on Portfolio 2a and Portfolio 5 during the internship year (Fall, Spring, Summer).
TARGET-2: 80% of the cohort will receive a mean score of 2.5 (Fall - Summer) (out of 4) on the TGCSQ Rubric therapist behavior categories of Warmth, Empathy, Validation, Therapist Collaboration, Therapist Presence, Systemic Based Techniques, and Session Structure during the year of internship
SLO-2: Organize and execute a breadth of theoretically informed clinical techniques used to demonstrate effective therapy interactions detected by clients and observers (SLO-2).
TARGET-1: 80% of the cohort will receive a mean score of 2.5 (of 4) on Placement Evaluation Rubric 1a (Fall, Spring, Summer).
TARGET-2: 80% of the cohort will receive a mean score of 2.5 (of 4) on Portfolio 2b, 3, and 6 during the year of internship (Fall, Spring, Summer).
Program Goal 2: The program will instill in students the importance of and ability to practice ethically and professionally.
SOL-3: Assimilate MFT professional and ethical guidelines in clinical and clerical actions that are appraised by training and community supervisors to meet professional standards (SLO-3).
TARGET-1: 80% of the cohort will receive a mean score of 2.5 (of 4) on Placement Evaluation Rubric 1e during the year of internship (Fall, Spring, Summer).
TARGET-2: 80% of the cohort will receive a mean score of 2.0 (Fall), 2.5 (Spring), and 3.0 (Summer) (out of 4) on the Monthly Audit Rubric 1a, 1d, 1e, 1f, 1g, 1h during the year of internship.
Program Goal 3: Graduates will be able to apply research methods to create evidence of their therapeutic effectiveness as well as the ability to contribute to the research base for their profession.
SOL-4: Develop research skills sufficient to assess clinical effectiveness, evaluate published research, or complete original research (SLO-4).
TARGET: 80% of the cohort will receive a mean score of 2.5 (of 4) on the Portfolio Rubric 2c, 2d, and the Portfolio Average Score during the year of internship (Fall, Spring, Summer).
Program Goal 4: The program will emphasize a multi-culturally informed perspective on MFT throughout the curriculum, on-and off-campus clinical supervised experiences, and students' interpersonal experiences during their program.
SOL-5: Endorse and implement multi-culturally informed ideals that embrace contextual issues of race, gender, gender identity, religion, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, national origin, sexuality, and sexual orientation (SLO-5).
TARGET-1: 100% of the cohort will receive a mean score of 70% (of 20) on the final Sociocultural Attunement Paper as graded by an independent non-core faculty member (Summer – First Year)
TARGET-2: 80% of the cohort will receive a mean score of 2.5 (of 4) on the Portfolio Rubric 3a, 3b during the year of internship (Fall, Spring, Summer).
TARGET-3: 80% of the cohort will receive a mean score of 2.5 (of 4) on Placement Evaluation Rubric 1c, 1d during the year of internship (Fall, Spring, Summer).
MFT Approaches Learned
Auburn University’s MFT program is intended to provide students with general skills and an understanding of foundational systemic MFT models. Students are expected to learn evidence-based approaches when working with individuals, couples, and families to treat various different concerns that may be encountered. Due to the expectation to learn several theories, it is inappropriate for students to decline to practice a particular model when part of course instruction or supervisor recommendation.
Though not exhaustive, a list of theories taught throughout the AU MFT program is provided:
Clinical Readiness and Training Philosophy
The Clinical Readiness Evaluation is a comprehensive assessment of your professional growth. The intensive and complex nature of work with marital and family problems requires maturity from marriage and family therapy practitioners. Those training to become marriage and family therapists must possess personal and professional integrity, must be able to state mature motives and professional goals, and must demonstrate clinical readiness. Therefore, the MFT faculty will evaluate your academic and professional growth. This process starts with your first contact with the MFT faculty and continues throughout your involvement in the program.
During the two-year program, the MFT and the departmental faculty observe the MFT students’ interactions with faculty, one-on-one and group contact with students, and general functioning within the program environment. The faculty provides student feedback regarding these observations and evaluations, a process designed to support your growth and development. It is the student’s responsibility to act on recommendations for professional growth. Each spring semester during the student’s two-year program, a formal evaluation process occurs, completed by the departmental graduate faculty for all HDFS graduate students. In addition, MFT faculty supervisors provide feedback based on evaluating clinical skills and ethical behavior during first-year labs and second-year internships. Off-campus placement supervisors provide evaluative feedback each semester during the internship placement. The information is compiled, and a letter is written in May of each year outlining your progress within the program.
MFT clinical faculty share their observations and evaluations throughout the student's program as needed. Instructors of non-clinical HDFS graduate classes who instruct MFT students and assistantship supervisors provide feedback to MFT Core faculty during the annual graduate student evaluation. If a student receives a grade of C or lower in any HDFS 7600 series courses, then the MFT faculty will evaluate the student’s ability to understand the concepts and demonstrate the skills necessary to begin or continue in the clinical labs and internship. Clinical evaluations focus on repeated poor grades in courses, client negligence, and case file maintenance. Each of these areas carries weight in deciding student continuance in the program. This meeting could prompt remediation, retention, and potential dismissal process.
Additionally, throughout the two-year program, the MFT core faculty assesses student maturity and personal and professional integrity, becoming a successful martial and family therapy practitioner. Students who have acted contrary to the MFT Program policies or ethical stipulations related to file management, professional practice, and timely client record keeping receive counsel to make positive changes within a specific timeframe. If the necessary change(s) does not occur or occurs, but there is a relapse into unprofessional behaviors, then the dismissal policy is followed. The student will be allowed to be accepted into the HDFS (nonclinical) master’s degree program if the student is in good standing in the Department and is selected by a faculty member to mentor. Students who do not accept the decision of the MFT faculty and refuse to change their program of study will be refused enrollment by the Department in MFT clinical labs and internships, as the prerequisite for these courses includes departmental approval.
Determining Student Readiness to see clients
Readiness is determined in two phases in the Auburn MFT Program. Phase 1 readiness is determined for students to see clients at the Auburn MFT Center in the spring of the first year, in which all therapy sessions receive live supervision. Phase 2 of readiness is when students transition to the internship element of seeing clients. Students are expected to see clients at the MFT Center and join an internship placement site within the community. There are determining factors in preparing for readiness for each phase.
Capstone Project
The Portfolio has been the Capstone project for the Auburn MFT program since 2010. This project includes twelve primary elements on which you will work (and receive feedback) throughout the program. The Portfolio will be required for the 3rd, 4th, and fifth semesters. The sixth semester is a culminating time to present how you have done as a therapist. The main adjustment is the Profile Analysis is a two-page compendium of practiced-based evidence of your success with clients during your last semester. The entire written portion of the paper will be 10-15 pages. The graphs highlighting client change for each case will be 20-30 pages. You outline how you effectively provided services to individuals*, couples, and families at the Auburn MFT Center each semester. You will also provide a summary of your professional progress within the program.
Your Portfolio will be scored by MFT faculty using the designated rubrics. The capstone is how we measure much of your clinical progress as a therapist, so it is a document that should be taken seriously. In Appendix D you will find instructions outlining the requirements for the papers and presentation, along with example write-ups to help prepare a successful Portfolio. When referring to clients, use the same initials for all of your cases. The structure of the Portfolio should match the outlines provided and have the same headings.
© 2025 Global Studies. All Rights Reserved.