[Shawnee, 03/03/2022] The Marriage and Family Therapy (MFT) program at OBU will host an information session for prospective students Thursday, Feb. 24, at 6 p.m. The event will take place in Stavros Hall room 214 on the OBU campus in Shawnee. Attendees will meet professors, learn about OBU’s Master of Science in marriage and family therapy, and speak with current MFT students. Attendees will also tour the University's state-of-the-art Kemp MFT Clinic. A virtual option is available for those unable to attend in person. Interested students may register at okbu.edu/graduate/therapy/virtual-mft-information-session.

The MFT program at OBU trains students to provide therapeutic services from a relational and systemic perspective in counseling agencies, private practice, schools, hospitals, churches and other settings. The MFT program equips marriage and family therapists for the compassionate, ethical practice of therapy with a diverse, multi-cultural and global society.

A marriage and family therapy degree is similar to a counseling degree but much more specialized. The curriculum teaches students how to solve problems within relationships with specific insight into marriages and families. The job of the marriage and family therapist is to identify those underlying factors that contribute to frequent problems and arguments, then work with the family to try to resolve them. Marriage and family therapy operates using a systemic approach, acknowledging that all members of a family and all parts of the family system interact with each other in a dynamic way. Thus, in order for members within the system to heal, the entire system must be addressed through therapy.

After getting to the root of these problems, the marriage and family therapist offers guidance and assistance to family members to help the family work through their issues. A marriage and family therapist can help bring families together, teach effective communication methods and work through differences in an effective way.

Classes are offered in person on the University’s Shawnee campus. Students may complete the program in two, three or four years, depending on what track and pace works best for each student.

To learn more about the master’s degree in marriage and family therapy at OBU, visit okbu.edu/graduate/therapy.

To reserve a spot at the MFT information session Feb. 24, visit okbu.edu/graduate/therapy/virtual-mft-information-session.

For more information about OBU, visit okbu.edu.

With its campus located in Shawnee, OBU offers nine bachelor’s degrees with 80 fields of study and four master’s degree programs. OBU has been rated as one of the top 10 regional colleges in the West by U.S. News and World Report for 30 consecutive years and Oklahoma’s highest rated regional college in the U.S. News rankings for 28 years. OBU is one of three universities in Oklahoma and the only private Oklahoma university listed on Great Value College’s rankings of 50 Great Affordable Colleges in the Midwest. The Wall Street Journal ranked OBU second in the nation for student engagement among all U.S. colleges and universities. Forbes.com consistently ranks OBU as a top university in Oklahoma and the Princeton Review has named OBU one of the best colleges and universities in the western United States for 17 consecutive years.