(a) An applicant who holds a graduate degree in a mental health-related field must have course work in each of the following areas:
  (1) theoretical foundations of marriage and family therapy--three semester hours;
  (2) assessment and treatment in marriage and family therapy--12 semester hours;
  (3) human development, gender, multicultural issues and family studies--six semester hours;
  (4) psychopathology--three semester hours;
  (5) professional ethics--three semester hours;
  (6) applied professional research--three semester hours; and
  (7) supervised clinical internship--12 months or nine semester hours.
(b) An applicant who begins a graduate degree program in marriage and family therapy or a mental health-related field on or after August 1, 2017, must complete course work and the minimum required semester hours in each of the following areas (the earliest class reported on one of an applicant's official transcripts denotes the start of a program):
  (1) theoretical knowledge and foundations of marriage and family therapy--three semester hours--including the historical development, theoretical and empirical foundations, and contemporary conceptual directions of the field of marriage and family therapy;
  (2) assessment and treatment in marriage and family therapy--12 semester hours--including but is not limited to treatment approaches specifically designed for use with a wide range of diverse couples, families, and children, including sex therapy, same sex couples, young children, adolescents, interfaith couples, crisis intervention, and elderly;
  (3) human development, gender, multicultural issues and family studies--six semester hours;
  (4) psychopathology--three semester hours--including traditional psycho-diagnostic categories including knowledge and use of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders;
  (5) professional ethics--three semester hours--including professional identity of the marriage, couple, and family therapist, including professional socialization, scope of practice, professional organizations, licensure and certification; and ethical issues related to the profession of marriage, couple, and family therapy as well as the practice of individual therapy;
  (6) applied professional research--three semester hours--including research evidence related to MFT, becoming an informed consumer of research, and research and evaluation methods;
  (7) treatment of addictions and management of crisis situations--no minimum requirements;
  (8) supervised clinical internship--12 months or nine semester hours. During the supervised clinical internship, the applicant must have 300 hours of experience, of which:
    (A) at least 150 hours must be direct client contact hours; and
    (B) of the 150 direct client contact hours, at least 75 hours must be direct client contact with couples and families.
(c) The remaining courses needed to meet the 45 or 60 graduate semester hour requirement must be marriage and family therapy or related course work in areas directly supporting the development of an applicant's professional marriage and family, individual, or group therapy skills.
(d) Staff may issue an LMFT Associate license to an applicant who has a deficiency in pre-graduate internship months, semester hours, or clock hours required by subsection (a)(7) or (b)(8) of this section, but must require the applicant to complete the deficient months, semester hours, or clock hours in addition to the post-graduate, licensed supervised clinical experience requirements in §801.142 of this title (relating to Supervised Clinical Experience Requirements and Conditions) before awarding an LMFT license to that applicant.

Source Note: The provisions of this §801.114 adopted to be effective October 5, 2020, 45 TexReg 7028