Postdoctoral Fellowship Programs
Postdoctoral programs in psychology offer varying levels of training in couple and family therapy.
Postdoctoral programs in psychology offer varying levels of training in couple and family therapy. APA’s (Commission for the Recognition of Specialties and Proficiencies in Professional Psychology [CRSPPP], 2012) Education and Training Guidelines provides a helpful taxonomy for categorizing specialized training:
- Exposure: doctoral programs that offer one to two courses in couple and family psychology.
- Experience: doctoral programs that offer one to two courses, as well as a practicum in couple and family psychology.
- Emphasis: doctoral programs that offer at least four courses and two practica in couple and family psychology.
- Major area of study: doctoral programs that offer two to three years of didactics, supervised practica and a dissertation/research project in couple and family psychology.
Postdoctoral fellowships that are strong in family psychology training are those that meet the following three criteria:
- Include didactic or case presentations focused on family psychology or systemic theoretical perspectives.
- Include at least one clinical rotation (greater than 25 percent client contact hours) of couples/family therapy or systemic consultation supervised by a faculty member with demonstrated competence in family psychology.
- Employ at least one licensed faculty member with demonstrated competence in couple and family psychology. Demonstrated competence in couple and family psychology can be shown by completion of focused pre-/postdoctoral training in couple/family psychology (i.e., CRSPPP "experience" level or greater), post-graduate certification in couple/family therapy, board certification in couple and family psychology from the American Board of Professional Psychology, election as fellow of Div. 43 (Society for Couple and Family Psychology), service in Div. 43 through governance or committee activities and/or scholarly publications (including research reports) related to couple and family psychology.
The 2018 APPIC Directory lists 64 APA-accredited postdoctoral fellowships that offer experience in couples and/or family therapy. This constitutes 75.3 percent of the total 85 APA-accredited post-doc listings. These sites are listed below by region and state.
Northeast
New England
Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont
New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania
Midwest
Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin
Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota
West
Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming
Alaska, California, Hawai’i, Oregon and Washington
South
Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi and Tennessee
Arkansas, Louisiana, Oklahoma and Texas
Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, District of Columbia and West Virginia
U.S. Territories
American Samoa, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands