Supporting Couples, Marriage, and Family Therapy Trainees in Need of Performance Improvement

Abstract

Couples, marriage, and family therapy (CMFT) educators and supervisors are required to differentiate between typical developmental struggles and more severe competency concerns. This process has the potential to become highly subjective and supervisors may differ in their perceptions of severity of trainee concerns, the need for intervention and/or remediation efforts, types of interventions utilized, and when to discontinue remediation efforts after interventions have failed to be effective. Ethical and competency standards, Council on Accreditation of Counseling and Related Educational Programs (CACREP) guidelines, and American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT) core competencies can be utilized in combination with a collaborative supportive approach to identify and encourage remediation of competency concerns for couples, marriage, and family therapists in training (CMFT-ITs). A composite case study is utilized to illustrate the unique demands of CMFT programs, promote early identification of ineffective trainee behaviors, consider ethical and legal mandates, and provide recommendations for intervention and remediation.