MFT Career

[honeyjello]

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Hello Everyone,

I'm in the process of applying to MFT (Marriage and Family Therapy) programs and can't seem to complete the "professional career goals" portion.

While I understand the reasoning behind this question, I feel that I cannot answer it in truth. Reason being is that I have no experience in a formal clinical setting.

During my undergrad, I've performed numerous community service hours, and volunteered at a middle school as a peer counselor working with at-risk adolescents. The work we did was pretty much up to us (no training, just instructions from the teacher). Working with this population was really enjoyable for me and I took my role pretty seriously (as compared to some of my peers), but I soon realized there wasn't much I could do without the support of the children's parents, which is how I came upon MFT. I have additional experience working with children, but not necessarily counseling related. Regardless, my experiences have confirmed and reaffirmed my ultimate passion is working with children/adolescents and their families, which is how I know an MFT program is where I want to be.

To sum up, I have an idea of the population I wish to work with as well as the kinds of issues I prefer, but I'm unsure of what perspective/theory/methodology to go with. So how should I address this in my personal statement? As far as my professional goals, is it enough to say who I want to work with and in what setting (i.e. children/families, and in my own private practice)? I feel as though it's not. Of course I could just research different theoretical orientations online, but I want to refrain from simply regurgitating what google has to say, as well as appearing as if I don't know what I'm talking about (I have a feeling admissions committees can spot these kinds of masquerades dead on). This is why I prefer not to include a theoretical preference since I have no "real" experience to back it up. However, I feel as though not shedding light in this area may make me less competitive. So you can see my dilemma.

Additional note: the instructions are not specific, just "State your professional goals," or some derivative of that.

Any comments, criticism, advice, personal experience, etc. is helpful!

 

[JustNoticing]

In my opinion, you aren't expected to know the exact theoretical stance you plan to practice from at this stage in your career. I think that demonstrating your awareness of the existence of different theories and systems approaches, and desire to learn them in their program along with seeing how they might apply to the types of population you want to work with should be enough.

Students can only gain so much exposure to clinical work and theory before beginning master's level training, and it isn't uncommon for them to change their mind once they begin learning more in depth.

 

[Goobernut]

Exactly what Freudian slipper said!

I'm just applying this round, but my advisors told me the admissions boards don't really expect you to know. They just want to see if you understand the concept. I also think its a weeding out type question. When I went to talk to a grad program, 3 different people must have said that the kiss of death was saying that you wanted to work with kids because you loved them, or that you wanted to be a counselor because you wanted to help people. If you answer the "theoretical orientation" question with enough humility to say you don't know it all, but would like to learn more about x, y, or z, I think is very appropriate.

I also decided to answer the "state your professional goals" type question very practically. I described my research looking at licenses and how that those licenses could provide work in a multitude of areas, allowing me to get a practical education while still fine tuning what I want. I'm a practical person though, so of course that's the spin I put on it.

Good luck to you!