MFT Comprehensive Exam With
Complete Solutions.
AAMFT Clinical Fellow - Answer a) AAMFT
b) A credentialed member of the AAMFT; Has met the standards for independent
clinical practice.
c) 1.Clinical membership (licensure) Eligible to apply if you have a license and reside
in an accepted state.
2. Clinical membership (evaluative) Eligible to apply if you live in a state that doesn't
license mat's or does but the license isn't accepted by the AAMFT.
Accreditation - Answer a) Program Standards
b) Certification granted to an educational institution that meets performance
standards of an institution of accreditation. Enables the consumer to know the quality
of the program.
c) The MFT program at FU is accredited by COAMFTE
*Blended Family - Answer a) Divorce
b) Step-families. Separate families united by marriage or coupling which face non-
normative developmental challenges of redefining/merging roles, rules, and rituals
for a new family structure
c) Redefining the role of parenting a new step-dad will have with his new step-
children.
Boundaries - Answer a) Structural Therapy
b) Invisible lines that regulate closeness and distance and exchange of information
among family members, and between families and the environment. Diffuse -
enmeshed, Rigid - disengaged, Clear - firm but flexible
c) A Father who distances himself from a feuding Mother/daughter and does not get
involved = Rigid
Caring Day Technique - Answer a) Strategic (Richard Stuart)
b) A therapist tasks a problem couple to generate a list of small positive things that
they can do to show each other that they care.
c) Each member of a couple has to come up with a list of no more than 5 concrete
things they want the other to do. Has to be small and specific things (buy flowers,
give a hug, make the bed), has to be something the other can do, and has to be
positively framed to do something, not to not do something.
Cloe Madanes - Answer a) Strategic Family Therapist
b) Together with Jay Haley, founded the Family Therapy Institute in Washington DC.
Uses playfulness, benevolent interpretation of symptoms, humor, and metaphor in
therapy.
c) A wife's reluctance to have sex with her husband is a benevolent way to protect
him from experiencing performance anxiety.
Co-dependency - Answer a) Substance Abuse and Addiction
b) The problem is not only the addict but also the family and friend network. The non-
addicted family member/friend enables the addict - inadvertent contributor to the
maintenance of the problem.
, MFT Comprehensive Exam With
Complete Solutions.
c) A wife calls in to work for her hungover husband lying and telling them that he has
the flu.
Coaching - Answer a) Bowenien
b) Therapist guides the process of change but does not do the work; self-
differentiation must be self-motivated and achieved.
c) Therapist may discuss facts over feelings, helping a client discover more about
their emotional reactions moving toward more differentiation
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy - Answer a) Evidenced Based Behavioral
b) Examines how thoughts, feelings & situations contribute to maladaptive behaviors;
learning and practicing modified behavioral skills.
c) A client with anxiety imagines an anxiety inducing situation & practices interaction.
Command level - Answer a) Communications Theory
b) Informs the receiver about the expected or desired response. Rarely consciously
acknowledged. The highest level of communication after content and meaning.
c) A wife tells a husband to take out the trash and he responds with "in a minute".
The injunction from the wife is to do it now, but there is a power struggle when the
husband replies in a way that is not just doing it.
*Complementarity - Answer a) structural
b) Reciprocity that defines every relationship. The exchanges are logically opposite:
pursuer-distancer, active-passive, dominant-submissive, accuse-deny
c) In a pursuer - distance relationship, the more one pursues, the more the other
distances, inviting further pursuit.
Confidentiality - Answer a) AAMFT Code of Ethics
b) A therapist's legal and ethical obligation to protect the client's identity and
information unless granted the client's written consent.
c) Limits to confidentiality include if therapist suspects harm to self or others, neglect
or abuse of minor/elder/disabled person, to warn a victim of an impending violent
crime.
Constructivism - Answer a) Foundation/Epistemology
b) Emphasizes that reality is not objective, concrete, & knowable, rather perception
is plastic and constructed by humans.
c) Reframing is a concept that relies on the constructed and plastic nature of
perception.
Content - Answer a) Communications theory
b) The report level of communication. Describes information, the details.
c) The words of the message conveying information.
Control - Answer a) Experimental Research Methods
b) In an experiment, the group whose variables remain unchanged for the purpose of
comparison with the experimental one.
Complete Solutions.
AAMFT Clinical Fellow - Answer a) AAMFT
b) A credentialed member of the AAMFT; Has met the standards for independent
clinical practice.
c) 1.Clinical membership (licensure) Eligible to apply if you have a license and reside
in an accepted state.
2. Clinical membership (evaluative) Eligible to apply if you live in a state that doesn't
license mat's or does but the license isn't accepted by the AAMFT.
Accreditation - Answer a) Program Standards
b) Certification granted to an educational institution that meets performance
standards of an institution of accreditation. Enables the consumer to know the quality
of the program.
c) The MFT program at FU is accredited by COAMFTE
*Blended Family - Answer a) Divorce
b) Step-families. Separate families united by marriage or coupling which face non-
normative developmental challenges of redefining/merging roles, rules, and rituals
for a new family structure
c) Redefining the role of parenting a new step-dad will have with his new step-
children.
Boundaries - Answer a) Structural Therapy
b) Invisible lines that regulate closeness and distance and exchange of information
among family members, and between families and the environment. Diffuse -
enmeshed, Rigid - disengaged, Clear - firm but flexible
c) A Father who distances himself from a feuding Mother/daughter and does not get
involved = Rigid
Caring Day Technique - Answer a) Strategic (Richard Stuart)
b) A therapist tasks a problem couple to generate a list of small positive things that
they can do to show each other that they care.
c) Each member of a couple has to come up with a list of no more than 5 concrete
things they want the other to do. Has to be small and specific things (buy flowers,
give a hug, make the bed), has to be something the other can do, and has to be
positively framed to do something, not to not do something.
Cloe Madanes - Answer a) Strategic Family Therapist
b) Together with Jay Haley, founded the Family Therapy Institute in Washington DC.
Uses playfulness, benevolent interpretation of symptoms, humor, and metaphor in
therapy.
c) A wife's reluctance to have sex with her husband is a benevolent way to protect
him from experiencing performance anxiety.
Co-dependency - Answer a) Substance Abuse and Addiction
b) The problem is not only the addict but also the family and friend network. The non-
addicted family member/friend enables the addict - inadvertent contributor to the
maintenance of the problem.
, MFT Comprehensive Exam With
Complete Solutions.
c) A wife calls in to work for her hungover husband lying and telling them that he has
the flu.
Coaching - Answer a) Bowenien
b) Therapist guides the process of change but does not do the work; self-
differentiation must be self-motivated and achieved.
c) Therapist may discuss facts over feelings, helping a client discover more about
their emotional reactions moving toward more differentiation
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy - Answer a) Evidenced Based Behavioral
b) Examines how thoughts, feelings & situations contribute to maladaptive behaviors;
learning and practicing modified behavioral skills.
c) A client with anxiety imagines an anxiety inducing situation & practices interaction.
Command level - Answer a) Communications Theory
b) Informs the receiver about the expected or desired response. Rarely consciously
acknowledged. The highest level of communication after content and meaning.
c) A wife tells a husband to take out the trash and he responds with "in a minute".
The injunction from the wife is to do it now, but there is a power struggle when the
husband replies in a way that is not just doing it.
*Complementarity - Answer a) structural
b) Reciprocity that defines every relationship. The exchanges are logically opposite:
pursuer-distancer, active-passive, dominant-submissive, accuse-deny
c) In a pursuer - distance relationship, the more one pursues, the more the other
distances, inviting further pursuit.
Confidentiality - Answer a) AAMFT Code of Ethics
b) A therapist's legal and ethical obligation to protect the client's identity and
information unless granted the client's written consent.
c) Limits to confidentiality include if therapist suspects harm to self or others, neglect
or abuse of minor/elder/disabled person, to warn a victim of an impending violent
crime.
Constructivism - Answer a) Foundation/Epistemology
b) Emphasizes that reality is not objective, concrete, & knowable, rather perception
is plastic and constructed by humans.
c) Reframing is a concept that relies on the constructed and plastic nature of
perception.
Content - Answer a) Communications theory
b) The report level of communication. Describes information, the details.
c) The words of the message conveying information.
Control - Answer a) Experimental Research Methods
b) In an experiment, the group whose variables remain unchanged for the purpose of
comparison with the experimental one.
