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Chapter Thirteen (13)
Professional Issues: Identity, Affiliation, Training, & Transitions as a MFT
35
Psychology
Graduate
04/24/2013

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Term

A developmental view on professional acculturation

 

begins with fundamental concerns such as: (3)

 

and emphasizes transitional issues such as: (3)

Definition

1. Identity

2. Affiliation

3. Training

 

1. Supervision

2. Licensure

3. Professional Development

Term

An issue is a matter of choice among and commitment to viable, responsible options in a decision.

 

An issue is not an issue if it is a ________.

Definition

Mandatory Action

Term

Our lives are influenced by a combination of external pressure for conformity and internal need for autonomy. The sources of power (Legitimate, Referent, Expert) converge with layers of value as couplets.

 

Legitimate Power often supports institutional values.

Referent Power can strongly influence personal values.

 

The convergence of these two couplets is unique for each person, particularly the manner in which these value-power combinations merge to affect our: (2)

Definition

1. Personal Acculturation

2. Worldview

Term

Process which occurs after one has developed a worldview based on personal acculturation, involving the effect of professional values-expert power couplet on one's existing worldview.

 

"We speak then not of having a job, but being a member of a rofession. Professional people are strongly identified with what they do."

Definition

Professional Acculturation

Term

An issue is NOT an issue if it is a mandatory action because it is not a matter of choice. Mandatory actions for desired privilege or status represent: (2)

 

For example,

  • practicing MFT w/out a license is not a professional issue b/c it's grounded in a mandate of prohibition.
  • completing a grad degree to be eligible for membership privileges in a professional assoc is not a professional issue b/c it is a mandate of obligation for membership.

 

 

Definition

1. forms of Institutional Values (e.g. assoc rules & legal statutes)

2. a  easure of Legitimate Power for Reinforcement

Term
We examine a variety of professional issues that involve a range of __________ which, as therapists, are grounded professional values and measures of expert power in order to retain our acculturated professional worldview.
Definition

Discretionary Actions

Term
Our ________ is an evolutionary process for emerging MFTs. It develops and is shaped by educational, supervisory, collegial, and similar influences we encounter, as layers of personal, professional, and institutional values converge to influence us in unique and dynamic ways throughout our professional lives.
Definition

Professional Identity

Term
This chapter discusses the professional issues that emerge in the earliest stages of one's professional acculturation and often persist throughout one's career. The objectives are to explore the: (3) for students and practitioners serving couples and families.
Definition

1. Criticality of professional identity as a matter of professional acculturation

2. Various options and opportunities for professional affiliation available

3. Significance of benchmarks & transitional steps in professional development

Term

D. Friedman and Kaslow's (1986) 6-Stage developmental model for identity development as a competent family therapist includes: (6)

 

where the entire process takes approximately ________ and is generally ________ in nature.

Definition

1. Anticipation (learn they'll be working w/ clients/supervisors)

2. Dependency (on supervisors for answers)

3. Continued Dependence w/ some movement toward Independence

4. Taking Change of therapy sessions (major transition), leading to...

5. Sense of Independence & Identity

6. Sense of Calm & Congeniality

  • 5 years
  • Sequential
Term

In the late 1960s and 1970s, MFT changed with a new way of defining and working through issues, where the "client" and the "problem" was not confined to the individual alone, but rather included the client's marital, familial, or social context.

 

To consider the dynamics of evolving systems, and not simply vicissitudes of individual rights, this more comprehensive concept called for: (2)

Definition

1. Redefinition of Fundamental Beliefs

2. Expanded Epistemology

 

Term

Branch of philosophy that investigates the origin, nature, methods, and limits of human knowledge.

 

For MFT, the term has come to mean a formal professional worldview - a framework for perspectice, thinking, conceptualizing, and valuing

  • grew from an awareness that families of clients were somehow involved in the problems of those clients.
Definition

Systemic Epistemology

Term
4 basic propositions of the Systemic Worldview:
Definition

1. Relationships represent the focus of study

2. Relationships can be isolated for study and defined, but only w/ the understanding that this isolation and definition are relative to the observer and his/her system

3. Causation is circular (nonlinear) w/in confines of specified significant relationships

4. Therapeutic change occurs through social relationships

Term
Despite the epistemological shifts assoc over time w/ the practice of MFT, we are more than what we do. Professional Identity involves more than an array of techniques or models. It is reflected in our: (4)
Definition

1. Professional Affiliations

2. Educational & Supervisory Experiences

3. Credential Status

4. Development through Research, Continuing Edu, & Intraprofessional Relationships and Service

Term

MFT continues to be viewed by some as a unique discipline among other professional disciplines, reflected in the professional assoc membership of practitioners espousing MFT who subscribe their allegiance to the AAMFT.

 

However, many others identify primarily with professional associations representing various other mental health professions which maintain that intervention w/ couples and families is a ________, a professional specialization w/in a larger field.

 

 

Definition

Therapeutic Modality

Term
The continuing debate over whether MFT is a unique discipline among other professional disciplines versus a therapeutic modality as a professional specialization w/in a larger field is an important debate b/c...
Definition
...the way MFT is conceptualized influences the practice of the profession.
Term
Those who believe that MFT is a separate and distinct profession stress that it has clearly acquried those characteristics that are hallmarks of a profession unto itself, where MFT is a profession with: (4)
Definition
  1. Scientific Body of Knowledge
  2. Relevant Theory
  3. Code of Ethics
  4. Specific Techniques
Term

Shields et al. (1994) observed that MFT had lost much of its influence as a separate profession b/c of its departure from a multidisciplinary paradigm.

 

In response, Hardy (1994) emphasized the elements of Wilensky's (1964) model of professionalization as relevant for viewing MFT as a separate prfession, sumarizing the framework by suggesting that for a profession to be recognized for its autonomy and authority, it must: (4)

Definition

a) find a technical base

b) assert an exclusive jurisdiction

c) link both skills and jurisdiction of training

d) convince the public that its services are uniquely trustworthy

Term

Hardy (1994) disagreed w/ Shields et al (1994) by contending that "the multidisciplinary paradigm is a major deterrent to the field's developmental evolution toward becoming a distinct and autonomouts profession."

 

He further noted that the evidence of meeting the Wilensky criteria for professionalization were present to prove MFT as a separate and distinct profession in the developments such as: (4)

Definition

1. Accredited Graduate & Postgraduate Training Programs

2. Specialized Knowledge from both Quantitative and Qualitative Research

3. Regulatory Legislation for State Licensure

4. Distinctive Affiliation via membership in AAMFT

Term
To summarize, evidence that MFT is a separate and distinct professional field emerges through factors such as distinct: (4)
Definition
  1. Professional Affiliations
  2. Statutory Recognition in Licensure
  3. Body of Research
  4. Pragmatic Considerations in Practice
Term
Those who view MFT as a professional specialization hold that MFT is a special way of providing mental health service, but not a profession in and of itself. They point out that the prevailing majority of professionals practicing MFT: (3)
Definition

1. Received their education as psychiatrists, psychologists, social workers, counselors, ministers, or nurses

 

2. Maintain membership in well-established professional associations having a distinct identity other than in MFT

 

3. Members of these associations clearly identify MFT as a professional specialization through division membership w/in their parent association

  • (e.g. Division 43 of the Society for Family Psychology w/in the APA; International Association of Marriage and Family Counselors w/in the ACA)
Term

Introducing additional ambiguity into this overall debate is the fact that AAMFT, although advocating MFT as a separate and distinct profession, has prided and continues to pride itself on its multidisciplinary membership (Bowers, 1992a). This fact is revealed through: (2)

  • In this respect, the position advanced by Hardy (1994) concerning a multidisciplinary view as a detriment to professional autonomy could be validated.
Definition

1) 1988 survey of training directors and clinical members of AAMFT that found that only slightly more than half (51.8%) believed that MFT should be treated as a separate discipline.

 

2)  Most professional journals that focus on MFT are interdisciplinary in editorship, authorship, and subscribership.

Term

Bowers (1992a) suggested that the ________ of MFT is an important element in its evolution as an identifiable profession.

 

As it has gained more acceptance, others, w/ relatively little history in defining or promulgating standards for the field, have begun to claim it in some way as their own - arguing, in effect, that no independent discipline of MFT exists.

Definition

Marketability

Term
Despite significant advances in professional and consumer recognition, evidence exists to counter a view of MFT as a separate profession. MFT licensure is a significant indicator of professional status. However: (3)
Definition

1.  Some states employ a composite framework for this licensure, collapsing MFT licensure w/ other licensure distinctions, such as licensed social worker, professional counselor, and other professions.

 

2.  An amalgam such as that portrayed in composite licensure could challenge the view of MFT as a separate profession.

 

3.  One might argue that such a development strengthens the argument advanced by Shields et al. (1994) that multidisciplinary affiliation is necessary to avoid the marginalization of MFT.

Term
Although searching for commonality is important, identifying dissonance and finding integration seems to be at the crux of professional identity, which is grounded in ________ that are informed through ________.
Definition
  • Personal Values
  • Professional Acculturation
Term

One criterion that identifies a profession is that it is ________ in that established professions are identified as such because they have developed standards and policies that, to some degree,

  • control entry into the profession
  • prescribe members' appropriate relationships to each other and general public
  • identify proper and improper practice
Definition

Self-Regulating

Term
In considering the importance of professional affiliation, the elements of 5 interrelated factors combine in unique ways to affect one's competence and identity as a MFT: (5)
Definition

1.  Graduate & Postgraduate Education

2.  Accreditation

3.  Supervised Experience

4.  Membership Eligibility & Distinctions

5.  Credentials

Term
In the same circular and contextual ways in which MFT is practiced, ________ & ________ are interrelated aspects of professional acculturation, particularly since associational membership categories are tied to graduate education.
Definition
  • Affiliation
  • Training
Term

The procedures for self-regulation in professional affiliation differ from licensure, which is reflexive of statutory recognition w/in a state jurisdiction as a right to practice couples with external regulations to protect consumers. Thus,

 

professional affiliation concerns...

whereas licensure concerns...

Definition
  • Ethical propriety, professional advocacy, & service
  • Legal status & governmental oversight
Term
Commission which serves under a broad mandate from the AAMFT Board of Directors to set the standards for and accredit graduate and post degree clinical training programs in MFT. Composed on nine members, seven of whom are professional members and two of whom are public members.
Definition

Commission on Accreditation for Marriage & Family Therapy Education (COAMFTE)

Term

The COAMFTE works cooperatively with the Association of MFT Regulatory Boards  (AMFTRB) as well as with individual state licensure and certification boards to assist in defining minimum national educational requirements for copetent practice as a MFT. 

 

Benefits of accreditation include: (4)

Definition

a)  consumer assurance of preparation and standards

b)  institutional endorsement of credibility and quality

c)  student mastery of essential knowledge and skills

d)  professional unity and improvement

Term
The AAMFT has always been active in promoting rigorous standards for gaining and maintaining professional affiliation, with many different membership categories available w/in AAMFT including: (4)
Definition
1.  Affiliate
  • nonclinical category for thos who want to remain abreast of professional issues and concerns in MFT, but not pursuing licensure or any clinical-level membership in AAMFT
2.  Student
  • students currently enrolled in grad/postgrad study w/ expectation to secure licensure or clinical membership
3.  Associate
  • postgraduates engaged in supervised clinical experience required for licensure as well as clinical membership
4.  Clinical
  • category for independent recognition and practice as a MFT, typically eligible for state licensure; calls for completion of Masters or Doctoral degree from regionally accredited educational institution or equivalent course of study
Term

From and to career benchmarks that emerge as one's career progresses from student to practitioner which, like therapy, are/involve

  • a task and a process
  • structure and initiative
  • goal-setting and termination planning
  • growth and development
  • a measure of risk
Definition

Transitions

Term
Few transitions are more significant in our professional life than the transition from student to graduate and emerging professional. With this accomplishment comes an array of opportunities and privileged, including the transition into: (6)
Definition
  1. new membership status w/ professional organizations
  2. associate or prelicensure status as practitioner
  3. advanced graduate study
  4. professional leadership positions
  5. public credibility and professional liability
  6. producer of research and inquiry
Term
A related matter in the struggles and commitments of transitions are the ________ that become risks in professional development.
Definition

Temptations

Term
5 common temptations and their resultant risks to which graduating students and novice practitioners are particularly vulnerable include the temptation to:
Definition
  1. Drop memberships
  2. Delay credentials
  3. Develop in isolation
  4. Declare one's career complete
  5. Drop liability insurance
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