FAQs

YES! Purdue University Northwest students are viewed as highly competitive for top PhD Programs in Couple and Family Therapy. Our graduates have gone on to receive their PhDs from CFT Programs including Virginia Tech, Florida State, Texas Tech, Kansas State, East Carolina University, Michigan State and the University of Georgia, among others.

YES! Accreditation by the Commission on Accreditation for Marriage and Family Therapy Education (COAMFTE) is important—it ensures the quality of the program, and is helpful in that the curriculum meets educational requirements for licensure in many states.

YES! Purdue University Northwest graduates have maintained a 100% employment rate within the field after graduation.

YES! Purdue University Northwest only offers face-to-face coursework. The number of students in each course are small and rely heavily on student participation via discussion.

YES! The core faculty often publish journal articles and book chapters, and are active in presenting—often with students—in leading CFT journals and at national an international conferences. Core faculty maintain part-time private practices.

YES! We accept a small cohort of students to start the program once per year (in the fall semester). We find that this helps students develop close and supportive relationships with their colleagues; many of these relationships last well beyond students’ time in the program.

YES! Purdue University Northwest covers a wide range of classic and contemporary theories and approaches to work with clients. We help students develop their own preferred theoretical approach. Students are required to write about their Theory of Therapy as part of their practicum experience.

YES! We are located 25 miles from downtown Chicago, with access to both urban and rural areas. We experience all four seasons. Furthermore, there are many cultural enclaves within a 50-mile radius representing ethnic groups from all over the globe.

YES! The Couple and Family Therapy Center (CFTC) is housed at the Indianapolis Boulevard Counseling Center in Hammond IN, which contains eight therapy rooms and a large remote observation room for group supervision. We have new state-of-the-art cameras in all therapy rooms, with the ability to record sessions and store them on a local, secure server. The CFTC uses an electronic health records system, so students are trained on the latest software systems for recording client information.

YES! Many students at Purdue University Northwest have published articles, received state and national research awards, presented at various conferences, and conducted workshops in the surrounding communities. The faculty are very supportive and encourage students to seek out these opportunities.

YES! Students start their practicum experience in our on-site Couple and Family Therapy Center (CFTC). After spending 3 semesters at the CFTC, students are placed at an externship site in the community, where they accrue the remainder of their required client contact hours.

YES! We realize the importance of training students for both in-person and telehealth approaches to providing therapy. Graduates of our program will be prepared to offer therapy via a range of interfaces.

We look for letter writers who can speak to your skills and abilities that are applicable to graduate school in general and specific to being a (future) therapist; therefore, we prefer letter writers to know who you are in an academic or work capacity. We suggest that you work closely with one or two faculty members on a project or task for a semester or two, so that you can learn more about research and academia. Similarly, we like to see applicants who have experience volunteering in the field, so a letter writer who has overseen your volunteer work tends to be a good reference for you as well.

We strongly suggest you take a statistics course prior to starting our program. If you have a major that is different from those stated in the previous question, then we strongly recommend you take coursework in human development and/or family studies.

We prefer undergraduate majors from psychology, sociology, social work and human development and family studies; however we have taken outstanding applicants from other majors.