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Clinical Practica
Students complete four internal practica at the Family Therapy Clinic at the Brief Therapy
Institute. During this practicum sequence students see their own clients and are
supervised in teams and individually. Details regarding practicum and the department
clinic are available in the Policies and Procedures Manual of the Brief Therapy Institute.
Policies and Procedures are required reading and understanding of all policies is expected
prior to commencing practicum are available online at
In depth discussions of all policies will be a part of internal practica.
HIPAA
Nova Southeastern University and the Department of Family Therapy require that all
students successfully complete the two NSU HIPAA certificate requirements during their
first term in the program, prior to seeing clients. These programs are uploaded on each
student’s Blackboard at the beginning of the first trimester. Certificates must be printed,
name entered in BLUE, and submitted to the DFT Internship Coordinator.
Background checks and fingerprinting are required of ALL students and must be completed
during the first two weeks of enrollment. Students will contact the DFT Internship
Coordinator for detailed information on these procedures are also located at
Client Contact Hours
In order to graduate, all students must document that they have a minimum of 1000
hours of direct client contact hours. At least 500 of the 1000 required hours must be with
couples and/or families present in the room.
Doctoral students who have a license in MFT or another mental health filed, or who obtain
the license during their doctoral program, may petition the program to waive some of the
required 1000 direct client contact hours.
However, waiving part of this client contact hour
requirement does not release a student from completing all of the practicum or internship
requirements of the program.
In order for a waiver request of client contact hours to be
approved, the student must also provide a copy of their supervisor’s vita and credentials.
In order for their supervision to count, these credentials must indicate that the previous
supervisor was licensed in the mental health field AND had appropriate credentials for
supervision.
If a waiver request is approved, students
still are required to document a minimum of 100
in-the-room client contact hours with individuals, couples, and/or families during their time
as a student in the program
before
beginning clinical internship. At least 50 of these hours
must be accrued at the Brief Therapy Institute (BTI) Practicum hours may be included in
the total. In order to count, all 100 direct client contact hours must be supervised by
AAMFT Approved Supervisor, who will sign and document that the hours submitted are
accurate. Students must follow all BTI policies and procedures.
For client contact hours obtained outside of BTI, documentation of client contact and
supervision hours must include the date, type of session (i.e., family, couple, or
individual), length, and location of each session. Students must have written case notes
for all sessions listed. The necessary forms are available online at the SHSS student
resources website. Students must submit their completed forms to the Internship
Coordinator at the end of EACH term to ensure progress is recorded and the student file
remains updated. Students must submit to the Internship Coordinator the ORIGINAL
SIGNED copy of the completed forms with all hours totaled and with all signatures in
