Building a Bridge Between Graduation and Marriage and Family Therapy Core Competency

Most mental health professional organizations are establishing core competencies standards, which are the basic skills that practitioners are expected to possess. The core competency movement originated from concerns about the abilities of clinicians to provide competent service to clients. The American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT) recently established the core competencies that each marriage and family therapist \u27s skill s should be measured by and that may lead to changes in education and training. This research examined the perspectives of AAMFT-approved supervisors to determine how they see their trainees\u27 performances compared to the core competency standards. Comparisons were made between the desired levels of performance reported by supervisors and the estimated performance level of the trainees. Results were tabulated and reported as mean scores and frequencies The result is a better understanding of what approved supervisors hope that trainees will be able to do upon graduatio