Theory of Change Paper

The MFT faculty members are interested in your general philosophies of relationships and interpersonal dynamics: how you think about people, the difficulties that bring people to therapy, and how your philosophies affect the way you do therapy. You are introduced to many models of therapy in the program, mostly in broad strokes. For this project, as you identify various models that best reflect your philosophies of therapy, you are asked to demonstrate familiarity with the model(s) through readings beyond those assigned in class using original and secondary sources. Papers must demonstrate an integration and logical flow beginning with broad paradigms, moving to theory and related therapies as well as how change occurs through your interventions, and how therapy outcomes are evaluated. You must also integrate and articulate your theories within a systems framework throughout your paper. Students repeatedly have demonstrated that those who are able to understand and clearly articulate their ideas are more effective in therapy.

Note: The outline below provides the sections that need to be included in the ToC. You can determine their order in a way that works with the flow in your paper.

 

Section 1: Introduction (~1/2 page)

In this section, you will introduce the reader to your model(s) and provide an overview of your paper. You will also need to find a way to engage your readers and make them want to read it.

 

Section 2: Worldview (~1 page)

Worldview illustrates how values, ideologies, and beliefs about human nature influence what we choose to consider or neglect in the process of therapy. It becomes the active paradigm or lens through which therapists view the client context and integrate systems concepts with other models of therapy.

 

Section 3: Normal Family Development (~1-2 pages)

An understanding of human development is important for therapists trying to facilitate change. This section will address factors that you feel are important in the individual and relationship development. Whether or not explicitly mentioned, your model(s) can help you identify specific elements of individual and relationship experiences that are important to you.

 

Section 4: How Problems Arise (~1-2 pages)

In this section, you will provide your beliefs about how problems arise in the lives of individuals, couples, and families. This builds upon your worldview and beliefs about normal family development to explain how problems arise and the nature of those problems. Even though you are talking about problems generally, use your terminology from your model as a guide.

 

Section 5: Assessment/Diagnosis (~1 page)

Having just explained your beliefs about problems more generally, you will now address the therapeutic implications in this section by explaining your philosophy of assessment and diagnosis. Make sure to address the role of assessment and diagnosis in your work and how you use them to inform treatment process.

 

Section 6: How Change Occurs (~2-3 pages)

In this section, you will talk about how change occurs generally. You will discuss more about therapeutic change later. Your purpose here is to think about how people make changes in their lives (whether it be in therapy or not). When they make those changes, what are the primary mechanisms of change? Although you are not just discussing therapeutic change in this section, your ideas should align with how change occurs within your model(s)

 

Section 7: Goals and Interventions (~2-3 pages)

Having just explained change more generally, you will now explain how you facilitate that change in a therapeutic setting, using your model(s). You can discuss both process (i.e., the therapeutic setting that you are working towards) and outcome goals (specific outcomes for the client). Then you will illustrate several interventions that help clients meet their goals.

 

Section 8: Role of the Therapist (~1-2 pages)

In this section, you will address your role as the therapist in helping clients move towards change. Unless addressed elsewhere, it is also important to address your responsibility toward ethical practice and cultural humility.

 

Section 9: Evaluating Therapeutic Effectiveness (~1-2 pages)

In this section, you will address your philosophy for evaluating your therapeutic effectiveness. You will also clearly explain how you measure your effectiveness and how that process helps you become a better therapist.

 

Section 10: Case Study (~2-3 pages)

Applying your model(s) to a personal case allows you to demonstrate competence in transferring knowledge to application. This should be an integration of information from worldview, therapy models, assessment, competency with diversity, context, self of the therapist, and so forth.

 

Section 11: Conclusion (~1/2 page)

In your conclusion, make sure you bring everything together and really help your readers understand what you want them to take from your paper. As part of this, you can also reflect on how your ideas have change over time, the strengths you have discovered, and next steps in your development as an MFT.

During your first semester of your first year, you will develop sections 1-3. You will also begin looking carefully at one or more theories of therapy as you prepare to see clients. The MFT 6300 instructor will evaluate these sections and provide feedback.

 

During the second semester of the first year, in MFT 6330, you will develop sections 4, 6, 7, and 8. These are closely related to the model(s) you have chosen, and MFT Theories I and II are designed for you to gain more depth in your model(s). The MFT 6330 instructor will evaluate these sections and provide feedback.

 

During the summer semester, as part of practicum, you will combine all the sections you have done thus far into one document and submit it to at least one other student for peer evaluation.

 

Section 5 will be addressed in MFT 6370, and section 9 will be addressed in MFT 6380. Your instructor in each of these courses will evaluate these sections and provide feedback.

 

During Fall semester of your second year, you will further develop your paper as part of practicum (MFT 6391R). In particular, you will also gain further guidance in measuring your effectiveness and writing up your case study. Your practicum instructor will evaluate your paper and provide feedback.

 

You are expected to make substantive reviews to your paper after each round of feedback. On your second year, you will submit your ToC to the faculty. The faculty will review and provide unified feedback by January.

 

You will use the unified feedback to further polish your papers and resubmit the paper to the faculty on. In this draft you will submit an overview of the changes you have made in your paper. The faculty will review within 2 weeks of submission. At this point, you will find out if you pass and whether any additional changes are needed before the presentation.

 

Our experience is that those students who talk about their ideas frequently and in depth have better understandings of their therapy and are more effective in therapy.

 

Miscellaneous Details

•         There is a 25-page limit for your paper (including title page, tables, figures, and references).

•         Becvar & Becvar and Nichols & Schwartz may be used only for references in the systems concepts and integration sections of the paper

•         Papers must be written in APA (7th edition) format

The ToC presentations typically are scheduled during finals week of spring semester. The exact dates and times are determined by faculty. In preparing for the presentation, it is important for you to understand that the presentation is an expansion, not a reiteration, of your papers. Experiential exercises are welcomed, but should be brief and not use the bulk of the presentation time. Exercises should reflect practices that are used in therapy. The presentation is limited to 25 minutes: 20 minutes for you to present your ideas, and 5 minutes for questions from the audience, excluding faculty.

Presentations should include your ideas about your strengths and what you plan on focusing on in the next phase of your training.

 

Invited guests, including the Department Head and Dean of the College may attend the presentation, which hopefully spurs you on to excellence.

 

All students must attend the ToC presentations. First year students will read all of the ToC papers and have at least two questions about each of the second-year students’ theory/paper. These should be brought to the Theory of Change presentations. You are encouraged but not required to provide presenting students with your feedback.