Post graduate certificate programme in Couple and Family Therapy by TISS

Eligibility

 

Eligibility:

• Professionals who have completed their Masters in psychology from a UGC-recognized University

• Have a minimum of two years experience of working with couple and family concerns

Description

Selected_for_PGCCFT_2025.pdf

 

Admission Requirements:

1.  Online Application Form

2.  Resume`

3.  2 reference letters from past/current faculty member, employer or supervisor

Medium of Instruction:

English 

Duration of the course:

15 weeks (Three and a half months) in odd semester 

 

Mode of Transaction:

This is a part-time course. The Course will be entirely transacted online.

(Please note that the Course will be offered only if there are a minimum of 8-10 students)

 

 

                                           IMPORTANT DATES

Last Date for Receiving Applications:	6th December, 2024
Announcement of Selected Candidates Shortlisted for Interview	3rd or 4th week of  December 2024
Interviews with the candidates	Last week of December 2024
Last Date to make fee payment	2nd January, 2025
Commencement of Course	4th January, 2025

 

Rationale for the Course: 

Family and marriage are important institutions in India. Today, families and marriages are undergoing major transitions in a globalized world. This has resulted in tensions between the traditional forms and values that informed the institutions of marriage and family and the modern ones. Today's families and couple relationships are adopting diverse forms and practices. On the one hand, this diversity has allowed for greater acknowledgement of different scripts for family and couple relationships. On the other, it has posed unique challenges, especially in the context of growing urbanization and diminishing support systems. The rising number of divorces and reports of domestic violence are some of the many indications of the conflicts experienced by today's couples and families.  This also coincides with the reality that a greater number of families and couples are willing to access help from formal support services such as criminal justice, legal and health systems, family counselling centers, voluntary organizations, and mental health professionals. Counselling and therapeutic services are important sources of help for many couples and families. 

The COVID-19 pandemic, too, has raised the need to address relational and familial conflicts. The joint nature of Indian familial structures coupled with a collectivistic framework of families meant that several individuals felt forced to stay with families for extended periods without any usual respites such as work, school, or leisure outside of the home. Counselors across the country and the globe saw a rise in marital and other familial discords, including concerns related to younger children, adolescents, the elderly, survivors of violence, as well as the unique stressors of marginalized groups such as queer individuals. The hierarchical and unequal nature of families meant further marginalization of those groups lower in power in such structures. This has further accelerated the need for services and trained professionals to address couple and family concerns in India.

About Couple and Family Therapy:

Couples and Family Therapies mark a departure from the traditional individualistic therapeutic understanding of mental health and adopt a systemic framework of viewing relationships. Couples and Family therapies emerged simultaneously in the 1950s in a variety of different countries and within a variety of different movements, disciplines, therapeutic, and research traditions. The basic premise of these therapies is that human problems are essentially interpersonal, not intrapersonal, and therefore, their resolution requires an approach to intervention that directly addresses relationships among people. The proposed Course equips its participants with a theoretical understanding of the nature of difficulties faced by couples and families, ways of assessing and conceptualizing the same, and methods of applying this knowledge to intervene. Thus, it offers a judicious mix of perspectives, knowledge, and skills in couple and family therapy.

 

Distribution of Credit Hours:

Course Objectives: 

• To gain a contextual understanding of the changing nature of family and couple structures in today's globalizing world and of the nature of relational concerns and difficulties faced by Indian families and couples
• To build a critical understanding of the role played by issues of power, gender, ethnicity, class, sexual orientation, religion, etc, in shaping family and couple dynamics in India
• To learn about the history and origins of family and couple therapy and about basic concepts of System's theory
• To compare and contrast major theoretical models in family and couples therapy and critically appraise them 
• To build assessment skills and develop ways of conceptualizing couple and family concerns 
• To learn a variety of intervention techniques proposed by major theoretical schools of family and couple therapy models, ways of documenting therapeutic work, and seeking feedback
• To examine ethical and legal frameworks that inform couple and family therapy 

 

Course Structure: 

Sr No	Module Name	Credits
A	Introduction to family systems and family therapy (Taught module covering a range of topics such as Family systems in India, Systems Theory, History of Family Therapy, Major theoretical schools, Working with queer families, Integrative Frameworks and schools, Legal frameworks and family therapy in India)	5 credits (75 Hours)
B	Introduction to Couple systems and Couple therapy  (Taught module covering a range of topics such as Couple systems in India, History of couple therapy, Major theoretical schools, Integrative frameworks and Domestic violence counselling)	3 credits  (45 Hours)
C	Fieldwork   Practitioners will be expected to work with couples and families in their respective practice settings or a setting of their choice. Fieldwork will be carried out alongside the theory classes and other coursework activities.	6 credits  (90 Hours)
D	Supervision   Supervision will serve as a space for the participants to reflect upon the intersections between theory and practice, and between the personal and professional aspects of self.	2 credits  (30 Hours)
E	Case presentations  During the course, participants will present work from their case/field work in the form of structured case presentations to the group.	2 credits  (30 Hours)
F	Practicing skills in couple and family therapy   This module will be dedicated to helping participants enact and practice skills and techniques learnt in the classroom through role plays and other practice exercises.	2 credits  (30 Hours)
	Total Number of Credits	20

 

 

Fee Structure:

Fee structure: 

Sr No.	Particulars	Fees to be paid at the start of the Course
1.	Tuition Fee	32300
2.	Examination Fees	1000
3	Field work/Internship: Experiential Learning charges	0
4.	IT charges	2000
5	Library charges	1500
6	Other charges (ID card, Convocation and Misc)	2500
7	Students' Competency Fund	0
8	Lab/Studio Fund	0
9	Development Fund	5000
10	Students' Union Fund*	0
11	Alumni Fund*	500
12	Health Care Fund*	0
13	Caution Deposit (Refundable at the time of exit through ND process)	5000
	Total Rs.	49800

 

Note: Caution Deposit and Library Deposit will be returned to the student on completion of the Course). Fees are payable at one-go. Fees are non-refundable.

Applications can be sent at:   aparna.joshi@tiss.ac.in and samruddhi@tiss.edu

 

Course anchored by:

Dr. Aparna Joshi,

Assistant Professor, Project Leader iCALL & Sukoon,

School of Human Ecology,

Tata Institute of Social Sciences