Training family therapists for working in the schools

Historically the schools have not been substantial employers of family therapy professionals. Yet, the issues of school violence and dropout prevention have raised awareness of the need to work with families as prosocial deterrents. Since Marriage and Family Therapists are trained to work systemically and productively with families in many contexts, the next step is to provide new trainees with general and specific skills for working within the schools where they can activate and connect the resources in the family and in the school. The following manuscript describes an overview of how a district-wide MFT program trains inexperienced therapists to work in the schools. © Springer Science+Business Media New York 2015.