MFT NATIONAL 2026 STUDY GUIDE QUESTIONS AND
SOLUTIONS GRADED A+
✔✔what theory retrospectively focuses on out-of-session behavioral sequences? -
✔✔strategic
✔✔what theory focuses on behavioral sequences? - ✔✔strategic
✔✔what theory focuses on in-session enactment? - ✔✔structural
✔✔what theory emphasizes out-of-session directives? - ✔✔strategic
✔✔what is ambivalence in couples therapy? - ✔✔one or both partners may be unwilling
to forgive past behaviors
✔✔how would assessment and therapy initiation be conducted in a structural
approach? - ✔✔the therapist would work with the family to help them realize how their
actions or behaviors might be contributing to the problem
✔✔who is the founder of MRI Brief Therapy? - ✔✔Paul Watzlawick
✔✔What are examples of mandated reporting? - ✔✔Tarasoff, child abuse, dependent
adult abuse, and elder abuse
✔✔what is enmeshment? - ✔✔inappropriate rigid boundaries (in a family system
everyone is thinking and feeling alike)
✔✔what is redefining? - ✔✔putting a positive connotation on behavior that is usually
considered to be undesirable
✔✔who is the founder of collaborative therapy? - ✔✔MC Bateson
✔✔Why did the Milan associates interview families about their history? - ✔✔to find
evidence of how the children's symtpoms became necessary for the system
✔✔what is accommodation in the structural process? - ✔✔the process by which a
couple transitions from courtship and adjusts to a partnership
✔✔Solution-focused family therapists prefer to focus the treatment time on the past,
here and now, future, or present? - ✔✔future, where problems can be solved
✔✔What is the main goal of the Bowenian model? - ✔✔differentiation of self
,✔✔What is fair exchange? - ✔✔the process by whereby members of a system act upon
each other and the system
✔✔The structural family therapy view of health families states that healthy families.... -
✔✔accommodate to change in circumstances
✔✔Schemas can _____ family member's perceptions and affect their responses to
each other's actual behaviors. - ✔✔distort
✔✔Contextual therapy pays attention to background history and past experiences in
order to - ✔✔assess ways in which individuals have been hurt in the past
✔✔Which of the following represents a key strength of the Mental Research Institute? -
✔✔its interdisciplinary staff
✔✔Being easily driven by emotionality, lacking a sense of self, inability to express your
own thoughts and constantly reacting to those around you, are characteristics of what
type of person? - ✔✔an undifferentiated person
✔✔Experiential therapists believe that as a result of parental attempts to control
children's feelings, children: - ✔✔Learn to suppress emotions
✔✔The strategies used in Cognitive Behavioral family therapy are designed to: -
✔✔Modify the specific contingencies of reinforcement for each family
✔✔According to Minuchin, the common or signature pattern for troubled middle-class
families consists of: - ✔✔An enmeshed mother and a disengaged father
✔✔What is one of the dangers of triangulation? - ✔✔can freeze conflict in place
✔✔A man discussed his difficult and painful childhood with his therapist. When asked
by the therapist, if he hoped things would be easier for his children than for him, the
man responded: 'Why should they?' According to Contextual therapy, this is an example
of: - ✔✔Destructive entitlement
✔✔Jessica, a divorced mother of two adult children, is at your office and tells you that
one son moved in with a young woman his age and that they both admit that the young
woman "pushed him into it." Jessica's son is very intelligent, attractive, and has a quiet
personality. Jessica is angry at the young woman for "trapping my son" and tells you
that the young woman has taken over her son's life and she (Jessica) never gets to see
him anymore. Jessica wants you to help her with her feelings of resentment and anger
at her son and this woman. Jessica's other adult son is also very intelligent and came
home to live with his mother after several failed relationships. Jessica resents her son
, living in her home, "making a mess, not paying for anything and not finishing school."
Jessica's ex-husband is a professional man who is successful financially, but has no
relationship with his sons. As a structural therapist, which in - ✔✔Enactments and
boundary making; work with family strengths
✔✔According to Psychoanalytic theory, mental conflict arises when: - ✔✔Children learn
that expressing natural impulses brings punishment
✔✔In Bowenian therapy, a person who is too close to other members of the family
would be referred to as: - ✔✔Enmeshed
✔✔Strategic family therapy focuses on: - ✔✔pragmatic problem solving strategies
✔✔Determining the baseline frequency of the problem behaviors occurring in the family
system is necessary in order to: - ✔✔Be able to accurately measure progress
✔✔Communications theory is defined as the study of: - ✔✔The exchange of verbal and
non-verbal messages in relationships
✔✔In the context of brief therapy, what does MRI stands for? - ✔✔Mental Research
Institute
✔✔When Janet, a 26-year-old childhood sexual abuse survivor, was in elementary
school, she could not concentrate on her schoolwork, and received barely passing
grades. Although she is very bright, she still cannot work up to her intelligence level.
She did not resolve the Eriksonian stage of: - ✔✔Industry versus inferiority
✔✔A group whose leader spends her time modeling behaviors such as listening,
empathy, and tends to structure the group experience, is in which of the following
developmental stages: - ✔✔Initial
✔✔In the early stages of group therapy, members begin to complain about not being
able to ask questions and having to self-disclose. What would Yalom suggest is the best
method to handle the situation? - ✔✔Bring up resistance as an issue in group dialogue
✔✔NFT indicates that instead of focusing on reframing client's negative interpretations,
it is more effective to focus on: - ✔✔Creating a new and more positive story
✔✔Choice of marital partner is determined, according to Bowen, by way of: -
✔✔Replication of familiar family interaction; similar levels of differentiation; choosing
their own alter ego
SOLUTIONS GRADED A+
✔✔what theory retrospectively focuses on out-of-session behavioral sequences? -
✔✔strategic
✔✔what theory focuses on behavioral sequences? - ✔✔strategic
✔✔what theory focuses on in-session enactment? - ✔✔structural
✔✔what theory emphasizes out-of-session directives? - ✔✔strategic
✔✔what is ambivalence in couples therapy? - ✔✔one or both partners may be unwilling
to forgive past behaviors
✔✔how would assessment and therapy initiation be conducted in a structural
approach? - ✔✔the therapist would work with the family to help them realize how their
actions or behaviors might be contributing to the problem
✔✔who is the founder of MRI Brief Therapy? - ✔✔Paul Watzlawick
✔✔What are examples of mandated reporting? - ✔✔Tarasoff, child abuse, dependent
adult abuse, and elder abuse
✔✔what is enmeshment? - ✔✔inappropriate rigid boundaries (in a family system
everyone is thinking and feeling alike)
✔✔what is redefining? - ✔✔putting a positive connotation on behavior that is usually
considered to be undesirable
✔✔who is the founder of collaborative therapy? - ✔✔MC Bateson
✔✔Why did the Milan associates interview families about their history? - ✔✔to find
evidence of how the children's symtpoms became necessary for the system
✔✔what is accommodation in the structural process? - ✔✔the process by which a
couple transitions from courtship and adjusts to a partnership
✔✔Solution-focused family therapists prefer to focus the treatment time on the past,
here and now, future, or present? - ✔✔future, where problems can be solved
✔✔What is the main goal of the Bowenian model? - ✔✔differentiation of self
,✔✔What is fair exchange? - ✔✔the process by whereby members of a system act upon
each other and the system
✔✔The structural family therapy view of health families states that healthy families.... -
✔✔accommodate to change in circumstances
✔✔Schemas can _____ family member's perceptions and affect their responses to
each other's actual behaviors. - ✔✔distort
✔✔Contextual therapy pays attention to background history and past experiences in
order to - ✔✔assess ways in which individuals have been hurt in the past
✔✔Which of the following represents a key strength of the Mental Research Institute? -
✔✔its interdisciplinary staff
✔✔Being easily driven by emotionality, lacking a sense of self, inability to express your
own thoughts and constantly reacting to those around you, are characteristics of what
type of person? - ✔✔an undifferentiated person
✔✔Experiential therapists believe that as a result of parental attempts to control
children's feelings, children: - ✔✔Learn to suppress emotions
✔✔The strategies used in Cognitive Behavioral family therapy are designed to: -
✔✔Modify the specific contingencies of reinforcement for each family
✔✔According to Minuchin, the common or signature pattern for troubled middle-class
families consists of: - ✔✔An enmeshed mother and a disengaged father
✔✔What is one of the dangers of triangulation? - ✔✔can freeze conflict in place
✔✔A man discussed his difficult and painful childhood with his therapist. When asked
by the therapist, if he hoped things would be easier for his children than for him, the
man responded: 'Why should they?' According to Contextual therapy, this is an example
of: - ✔✔Destructive entitlement
✔✔Jessica, a divorced mother of two adult children, is at your office and tells you that
one son moved in with a young woman his age and that they both admit that the young
woman "pushed him into it." Jessica's son is very intelligent, attractive, and has a quiet
personality. Jessica is angry at the young woman for "trapping my son" and tells you
that the young woman has taken over her son's life and she (Jessica) never gets to see
him anymore. Jessica wants you to help her with her feelings of resentment and anger
at her son and this woman. Jessica's other adult son is also very intelligent and came
home to live with his mother after several failed relationships. Jessica resents her son
, living in her home, "making a mess, not paying for anything and not finishing school."
Jessica's ex-husband is a professional man who is successful financially, but has no
relationship with his sons. As a structural therapist, which in - ✔✔Enactments and
boundary making; work with family strengths
✔✔According to Psychoanalytic theory, mental conflict arises when: - ✔✔Children learn
that expressing natural impulses brings punishment
✔✔In Bowenian therapy, a person who is too close to other members of the family
would be referred to as: - ✔✔Enmeshed
✔✔Strategic family therapy focuses on: - ✔✔pragmatic problem solving strategies
✔✔Determining the baseline frequency of the problem behaviors occurring in the family
system is necessary in order to: - ✔✔Be able to accurately measure progress
✔✔Communications theory is defined as the study of: - ✔✔The exchange of verbal and
non-verbal messages in relationships
✔✔In the context of brief therapy, what does MRI stands for? - ✔✔Mental Research
Institute
✔✔When Janet, a 26-year-old childhood sexual abuse survivor, was in elementary
school, she could not concentrate on her schoolwork, and received barely passing
grades. Although she is very bright, she still cannot work up to her intelligence level.
She did not resolve the Eriksonian stage of: - ✔✔Industry versus inferiority
✔✔A group whose leader spends her time modeling behaviors such as listening,
empathy, and tends to structure the group experience, is in which of the following
developmental stages: - ✔✔Initial
✔✔In the early stages of group therapy, members begin to complain about not being
able to ask questions and having to self-disclose. What would Yalom suggest is the best
method to handle the situation? - ✔✔Bring up resistance as an issue in group dialogue
✔✔NFT indicates that instead of focusing on reframing client's negative interpretations,
it is more effective to focus on: - ✔✔Creating a new and more positive story
✔✔Choice of marital partner is determined, according to Bowen, by way of: -
✔✔Replication of familiar family interaction; similar levels of differentiation; choosing
their own alter ego
