Hours

Master's students must complete 500 direct client contact hours, 250 of which must be relational hours.  They must also complete 100 hours of supervision, 50 of which uses observable data (e.g., direct observation, videotapes, or audiotapes).

Individual supervision is defined as one supervisor with one or two supervisees.  Group supervision consists of one supervisor and eight or fewer students. Regardless of the number of clinical supervisors present, a group cannot exceed eight students to qualify for group supervision. For example, ten students and two program clinical supervisors are not appropriate because the number of students exceeds eight. 

COAMFTE defines direct client contact as a therapeutic meeting of a therapist and client (individual, relational, or group) occurring in-person synchronously, either physically in the same location or mediated by technology. Assessments may be counted if they are in-person processes that are more than clerical in nature and focus. Also, therapy services delivered through interactive team modalities may provide direct client contact for specific team members who have in-person interaction with the client/system during the session. Therapy team members who engage the therapeutic process only behind the mirror may not count the experience as direct client contact. Activities such as telephone contact, case planning, observation of therapy, record keeping, trainings, role-playing, travel, administrative activities, consultation with community members or professionals, and/or MFT relational/systemic supervision are not considered direct client contact.

Relational Hours is a category of direct clinical contact hours in which a clinician delivers therapeutic services with two or more individuals conjointly, who share an ongoing relationship beyond that which occurs in the therapeutic experience itself. Examples include family subsystems, intimate couple subsystems, enduring friendship/community support subsystems, and residential, treatment, or situationally connected subsystems.

• Relational hours also may be counted with relational subsystems that include a person whose only available means to participate in the in-person therapeutic meeting is telephonic or electronic (e.g., incarcerated, deployed or out-of-town subsystem members.)

• Group therapy can be counted as relational hours if those in the group therapy have a relationship outside of (above and beyond) the group itself. Conversely, group therapy sessions of otherwise non-related individuals are not considered as relational hours.

Up to 50 relational and 50 individual hours of the required hours of client contact may be reflecting team practice hours.  Anything over the 50/50 does not count towards the 500-hour requirement.  

Co-therapy counts as direct client contact if both therapists share in the responsibility for the case (e.g., treatment planning, writing case notes)

During live supervision, there are two instances when student therapist counts the time as both supervision and direct client contact:

• When the student therapist is in the room with the client and the supervisor is viewing live.

• When the student therapist is part of a reflecting team with a supervisor present.

When counting hours round up or down to the nearest half hour.  Use this as a guide:

If session duration is:
0-14 minutes = 0 client contact hours
15-44 minutes = .5 client contact hours
45-60 minutes = 1 client contact hour 

If session is split between individual & relational time, at least half the session needs to be with the system in the room AND one note is being written for the session.

Some examples:

• If the session was 50 minutes in duration, 25 of those minutes the system was in the room AND only one note is being written for the session = 1 relational client contact hour

• If two separate notes are being written (one for the 25 minutes with the system in the room and one for the 25 minutes with an individual), then = .5 individual client contact hour & .5 relational client contact hour

• If the session was 30 minutes in duration, and 15 of those minutes the system was in the room AND only one note is being written for the session = .5 relational client contact hour

Using rules of rounding, supervision hours should be counted in 15 minute increments.

At the beginning of each month, students are responsible for submitting Monthly Hours Log in Tevera, which is an assignment for each practicum course, as well as submitting time for Approval through the Timesheet environment in Tevera.  The Titanium Hours Report and Supervision Log should attached to your monthly hours assignment in Tevera.  Hours are to be submitted by the 15th of the month after they were accrued. For example, April hours are due May 15. 

Hours that are NOT turned in during the month after they were accrued will not be counted.  There is a grace period until the end of the month but hours logs for a month will not be accepted after the last day of the subsequent month.

Students should make all efforts to ensure accuracy of hours submitted.  Supervisors review the accuracy of hours by checking Titanium printout & supervision log compared to Track Hours Log, then signs.

A student is able to generate a report within Tevera to calculate their total accrued hours at any point.