MFT Comprehensive Exam Questions &
Answers 2023/2024
AAMFT Clinical Fellow - ANSWER-a) AAMFT
b) A credentialed member of the AAMFT; Has met the standards for independent clinical practice.
c) 1.Clinical membership (licensure) Eligible to apply if you have a license and reside in an accepted state.
2. Clinical membership (evaluative) Eligible to apply if you live in a state that doesn't license mat's or
does but the license isn't accepted by the AAMFT.
Accreditation - ANSWER-a) Program Standards
b) Certification granted to an educational institution that meets performance standards of an institution
of accreditation. Enables the consumer to know the quality of the program.
c) The MFT program at FU is accredited by COAMFTE
*Blended Family - ANSWER-a) Divorce
b) Step-families. Separate families united by marriage or coupling which face non-normative
developmental challenges of redefining/merging roles, rules, and rituals for a new family structure
c) Redefining the role of parenting a new step-dad will have with his new step-children.
Boundaries - ANSWER-a) Structural Therapy
b) Invisible lines that regulate closeness and distance and exchange of information among family
members, and between families and the environment. Diffuse - enmeshed, Rigid - disengaged, Clear -
firm but flexible
c) A Father who distances himself from a feuding Mother/daughter and does not get involved = Rigid
Caring Day Technique - ANSWER-a) Strategic (Richard Stuart)
b) A therapist tasks a problem couple to generate a list of small positive things that they can do to show
each other that they care.
, c) Each member of a couple has to come up with a list of no more than 5 concrete things they want the
other to do. Has to be small and specific things (buy flowers, give a hug, make the bed), has to be
something the other can do, and has to be positively framed to do something, not to not do something.
Cloe Madanes - ANSWER-a) Strategic Family Therapist
b) Together with Jay Haley, founded the Family Therapy Institute in Washington DC. Uses playfulness,
benevolent interpretation of symptoms, humor, and metaphor in therapy.
c) A wife's reluctance to have sex with her husband is a benevolent way to protect him from
experiencing performance anxiety.
Co-dependency - ANSWER-a) Substance Abuse and Addiction
b) The problem is not only the addict but also the family and friend network. The non-addicted family
member/friend enables the addict - inadvertent contributor to the maintenance of the problem.
c) A wife calls in to work for her hungover husband lying and telling them that he has the flu.
Coaching - ANSWER-a) Bowenien
b) Therapist guides the process of change but does not do the work; self-differentiation must be self-
motivated and achieved.
c) Therapist may discuss facts over feelings, helping a client discover more about their emotional
reactions moving toward more differentiation
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy - ANSWER-a) Evidenced Based Behavioral
b) Examines how thoughts, feelings & situations contribute to maladaptive behaviors; learning and
practicing modified behavioral skills.
c) A client with anxiety imagines an anxiety inducing situation & practices interaction.
Command level - ANSWER-a) Communications Theory
b) Informs the receiver about the expected or desired response. Rarely consciously acknowledged. The
highest level of communication after content and meaning.
c) A wife tells a husband to take out the trash and he responds with "in a minute". The injunction from
the wife is to do it now, but there is a power struggle when the husband replies in a way that is not just
doing it.
Answers 2023/2024
AAMFT Clinical Fellow - ANSWER-a) AAMFT
b) A credentialed member of the AAMFT; Has met the standards for independent clinical practice.
c) 1.Clinical membership (licensure) Eligible to apply if you have a license and reside in an accepted state.
2. Clinical membership (evaluative) Eligible to apply if you live in a state that doesn't license mat's or
does but the license isn't accepted by the AAMFT.
Accreditation - ANSWER-a) Program Standards
b) Certification granted to an educational institution that meets performance standards of an institution
of accreditation. Enables the consumer to know the quality of the program.
c) The MFT program at FU is accredited by COAMFTE
*Blended Family - ANSWER-a) Divorce
b) Step-families. Separate families united by marriage or coupling which face non-normative
developmental challenges of redefining/merging roles, rules, and rituals for a new family structure
c) Redefining the role of parenting a new step-dad will have with his new step-children.
Boundaries - ANSWER-a) Structural Therapy
b) Invisible lines that regulate closeness and distance and exchange of information among family
members, and between families and the environment. Diffuse - enmeshed, Rigid - disengaged, Clear -
firm but flexible
c) A Father who distances himself from a feuding Mother/daughter and does not get involved = Rigid
Caring Day Technique - ANSWER-a) Strategic (Richard Stuart)
b) A therapist tasks a problem couple to generate a list of small positive things that they can do to show
each other that they care.
, c) Each member of a couple has to come up with a list of no more than 5 concrete things they want the
other to do. Has to be small and specific things (buy flowers, give a hug, make the bed), has to be
something the other can do, and has to be positively framed to do something, not to not do something.
Cloe Madanes - ANSWER-a) Strategic Family Therapist
b) Together with Jay Haley, founded the Family Therapy Institute in Washington DC. Uses playfulness,
benevolent interpretation of symptoms, humor, and metaphor in therapy.
c) A wife's reluctance to have sex with her husband is a benevolent way to protect him from
experiencing performance anxiety.
Co-dependency - ANSWER-a) Substance Abuse and Addiction
b) The problem is not only the addict but also the family and friend network. The non-addicted family
member/friend enables the addict - inadvertent contributor to the maintenance of the problem.
c) A wife calls in to work for her hungover husband lying and telling them that he has the flu.
Coaching - ANSWER-a) Bowenien
b) Therapist guides the process of change but does not do the work; self-differentiation must be self-
motivated and achieved.
c) Therapist may discuss facts over feelings, helping a client discover more about their emotional
reactions moving toward more differentiation
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy - ANSWER-a) Evidenced Based Behavioral
b) Examines how thoughts, feelings & situations contribute to maladaptive behaviors; learning and
practicing modified behavioral skills.
c) A client with anxiety imagines an anxiety inducing situation & practices interaction.
Command level - ANSWER-a) Communications Theory
b) Informs the receiver about the expected or desired response. Rarely consciously acknowledged. The
highest level of communication after content and meaning.
c) A wife tells a husband to take out the trash and he responds with "in a minute". The injunction from
the wife is to do it now, but there is a power struggle when the husband replies in a way that is not just
doing it.
