Marriage and Family Therapy Facts

- MFT originated about 60 years ago when health care clinicians began to seek more effective and comprehensive ways to treat disorders such as schizophrenia, anorexia and alcoholism.

- MFTs work with individuals, groups, couples, and families, and focus on the power of the family system as an instrument of change and healing.

- MFTs treat the client's relationships within systems (e.g. families, couples, schools, work and cultures) as a way of understanding the development of dysfunctional patterns.

- MFTs view relational systems as frequent sources of stress and symptom formation.

- MFTs come from a wide variety of backgrounds, such as medicine, psychology, psychiatry, nursing and social work.

- MFTs frequently treat such mental health disorders as anxiety, depression, substance abuse, adjustment disorders, marriage and family conflict, and behavioral disorders in children and adolescents, among others.

- MFTs have historically been trained to work within 20 session "brief therapy" time frames.

- MFTs recognize that while disorders have relational consequences, treatment often must include psychiatric consultation, medication, psychological testing and individual psychotherapy.

- MFTs in Connecticut became licensed in 1995.

- MFTs in Connecticut are assured confidentiality of clinical records as a result of the 1992 Privileged Communication Bill.

- MFTs in Connecticut received vendorship in 1992. This bill requires that eligible licensed MFTs receive third party reimbursement on the same basis as the other four state-regulated mental health providers.

- There are over 800 CAMFT members in Connecticut.