645—31.4 (154D) Educational qualifications for marital and family therapists. The applicant must present proof of meeting the following educational requirements for licensure as a marital and family therapist:
	 31.4(1) Applicants must present with the application an official transcript verifying completion of a master’s degree of 45 semester hours (or 60 quarter hours) or a doctoral degree in marital and family therapy from a program accredited by the Commission on Accreditation for Marriage and Family Therapy Education (COAMFTE) from a college or university accredited by an agency recognized by the United States Department of Education or the Council on Postsecondary Accreditation; or
	 31.4(2) Applicants must present with the application an official transcript verifying completion of a master’s degree of 45 semester hours (or 60 quarter hours) or a doctoral degree in a mental health, behavioral science, or a counseling-related field from a college or university accredited by an agency recognized by the United States Department of Education or the Council on Postsecondary Accreditation, which is content-equivalent to a graduate degree in marital and family therapy. In order to qualify as a “content-equivalent” degree, a graduate transcript must document:
	  a.   	 At least three courses in each of the three areas listed below:
	 (1) 	 Theoretical foundations of marital and family therapy systems. Any course which deals primarily in areas such as family life cycle; theories of family development; marriage or the family; sociology of the family; families under stress; the contemporary family; family in a social context; the cross-cultural family; youth/adult/aging and the family; family subsystems; individual, interpersonal relationships (marital, parental, sibling).
	 (2) 	 Assessment and treatment in family and marital therapy. Any course which deals primarily in areas such as family therapy methodology; family assessment; treatment and intervention methods; overview of major clinical theories of marital and family therapy, such as communications, contextual, experiential, object relations, strategic, structural, systemic, transgenerational.
	 (3) 	 Human development. Any course which deals primarily in areas such as human development; personality theory; human sexuality. One course must be psychopathology.
	  b.   	 At least one course in each of the two areas listed below:
	 (1) 	 Ethics and professional studies. Any course which deals primarily in areas such as professional socialization and the role of the professional organization; legal responsibilities and liabilities; independent practice and interprofessional cooperation; ethics; and family law.
	 (2) 	 Research. Any course which deals primarily in areas such as research design, methods, statistics; research in marital and family studies and therapy.
If the applicant has taught a graduate-level course as outlined above at a college or university accredited by an agency recognized by the United States Department of Education or the Council on Professional Accreditation, that course will be credited toward the course requirements.
	  c.   	 A practicum/internship of at least 300 clock hours is required for all applicants. The internship hours may be used to count toward the supervision requirement.
	 31.4(3) All courses must be at least three graduate semester credit hours. One semester hour shall equal 15 clock hours of course time. A course may not be used more than once to fulfill more than one content area.