MS in Marital & Family Therapy

The MS in Marital and Family Therapy program aligns with Loma Linda University's vision of transforming lives through whole-person care. Our mission is to bring health, healing, wholeness, and hope to individuals, families, and communities through education, research, clinical training, and community service. The MS program accomplishes this by addressing the relational needs and concerns of individuals and families over the life course in communities and global society.

The program is fully COAMFTE (Commission on Accreditation for Marriage and Family Therapy Education) accredited. This is the national accreditation organization for marriage and family therapy programs throughout the United States. This accreditation ensures that students receive comprehensive academic and clinical training and that they will be well-prepared to work with individuals, couples, families, children, and adolescents in diverse settings.

Loma Linda University’s rich history of providing health care in the community began with the inception of the Schools of Medicine and Nursing in 1909. The need for quality health care expanded into the area of behavioral health in the mid-1950s, when Loma Linda University (then known as the College of Medical Evangelists) began to formally address the behavioral health needs of the community in an academic setting. Well ahead of its time, Loma Linda University established the Master of Arts in Family Life Education and the Master of Science in Marriage and Family Therapy in the autumn of 1954. The MFT program is now one of several degree programs housed in the Department of Counseling and Family Sciences.

During the mid-1970s, the university emphasized the importance of whole-person care, focusing on a bio-psycho-social-spiritual approach to working with clients. The university subsequently expanded its behavioral health care programs to include the Department of Psychology and the Department of Social Work and Social Ecology to meet the community's needs.