What this program actually is
OrientationGeneralist systems (a required two-course Marriage & Family Systems sequence) inside a Seventh-day Adventist school of education — the curriculum is otherwise a BBS content checklist rather than a named theoretical school
Start with the number, because getting it wrong here is expensive. La Sierra's admissions page says the M.A. in Counseling requires "a minimum of 45 units," and California's Business and Professions Code §4980.36 requires a degree of at least 60 semester or 90 quarter units for LMFT eligibility. The 45 is not a problem and it is not a shortcut: **La Sierra runs entirely on quarters.** The 2026–27 Graduate Bulletin states plainly that "All credits earned at La Sierra University are quarter units," defines the quarter unit as "a minimum of 10 hours of university-level instruction during a quarter," and sets a second master's degree at "a minimum of 30 quarter units." So the 45 is 45 quarter units — 30 semester units — and it is the floor for the *generic* M.A. in Counseling, the version you take if you want the degree and not the license. It is nowhere near LMFT-qualifying, and the admissions page's own hedge ("Some individuals may require more than the minimum of 45 units because of the requirements for a certification, credential, or licensure") is doing an enormous amount of quiet work.
The license-qualifying version is a separately named thing: the **Extended M.A. Counseling Education Program**. The bulletin: "For the California Professional Clinical Counselors and Marriage and Family Therapy licensures, at least 90 units of postbaccalaureate study are required. The extended MA counseling program would prepare MA in Counseling students who are interested in completing the prerequisites necessary to apply for the California License of Professional Clinical Counselors or the California License of Marriage and Family Therapy." Ninety quarter units is exactly the §4980.36 quarter-unit floor. And the department's own published main-campus course schedule for the MFT/LPCC track goes past it: 39 units in year one, 57 in year two, "Total Program Quarter Units 96" — about 64 semester units, two academic years plus a summer, seven quarters of enrollment. So the honest one-line answer for a prospective student is: **45 is a quarter-unit floor for a non-licensing degree; the MFT track is 96 quarter units, and you should budget for that, not for 45.** The Board of Behavioral Sciences has, per the bulletin, "fully approved and endorsed the La Sierra University licensure programs" for both the LMFT and the LPCC — so the track does work, it is just roughly twice the size the front door implies.
Two things then make this program structurally unlike most California MFT degrees. The first is that the practicum is not a block — it is shredded and stapled to the lecture courses. The department's LPCC fact sheet explains the mechanism outright: "courses normally listed as only 3.0 units will require an additional 1.5 units of practicum for a total of 4.5 units." That is why the schedule is full of paired codes — EDPC 631 Psychopathology and EDPC 631P Psychopathology Practicum, EDPC 610 Human Sexuality and EDPC 610P, EDPC 620 and EDPC 620P — and why the companions are often taken a full year *after* the parent course. Read the bulletin descriptions of those companions and most of them are simulation, not clients: EDPC 610-P is "visiting relevant self-help groups (e.g., sexual addiction self-help groups), engaging in therapeutic roleplays that involve relevant counseling vignettes... and/or engaging in research in this domain." Real client hours live in one course, EDPC 562, taken twice. The second is the setting. This is a Seventh-day Adventist university and the MFT track is administered by a School of Education department, and both show in the required list: every MFT student takes EDFO 512 Integration of Faith and Learning and EDAD 524, which the bulletin describes as "School Administration and Leadership... a core requirement for master's degree candidates in education." You will sit a course on running a school in order to become a therapist.
See it and hear it
The courses that define it
Every California program teaches law and ethics, assessment and a survey of theories. These are the courses that are not on every list — the ones that tell you what this particular faculty believes therapy is. The quoted text is the catalog’s own; the note underneath each one is mine.
Marriage & Family Systems I Theory (and its Practicum)
"Focus on working with families who want to nurture personal change and development. Examines the ‘system’ of interaction between individuals that make up the couple or family. Also examines marriage and family in the context of culture and socioeconomic status." The 1.5-unit companion is "relevant therapeutic role-plays involving work with couples and/or families experiencing various moderate to severe presenting problems, and/or conducting relevant research."catalog ↗
Why it is worth noticingThis is the whole systemic core of the degree — with EDPC 621 it is the only place couples-and-families theory is taught as such, in a 96-unit program. Note the split: theory in Year 1 Fall, the practicum companion in Year 2 Fall, a full year later. If you want a program saturated in family-systems thinking, this is two courses, not an orientation.
Marriage & Family Systems II Interventions
"Building upon systems theory, an examination of interventions for couples and families. Interventions include but are not limited to psycho educational, reality, and family systems coaching." Prerequisite: EDPC 620.catalog ↗
Why it is worth noticingThe named interventions are worth reading twice. ‘Reality’ therapy and ‘family systems coaching’ are an unusual pair to headline where most CA programs would name Bowen, structural, strategic, emotionally focused or narrative. It reads as eclectic-practical rather than as allegiance to a school.
Counseling Practicum
"Practicum in the counseling of individuals, couples, families, and groups under supervision. Serves as a laboratory experience in individual and relational assessments and treatment planning... For LPCC and MFT students only, this course must be repeated for a total of 9 units. Supervised practicum in a clinical setting required... A minimum of 30 hours of direct counseling in a practicum site is required."catalog ↗
Why it is worth noticingThis single course carries all the real client work in the degree, and the schedule places the first half in the SPRING OF YEAR ONE — unusually early for a California MFT program, where second-year starts are the norm. The 30-hour figure is a per-registration floor; the program total is 280 face-to-face hours.
Introduction to Practicum
"An opportunity for PCC and MFT trainee to prepare in counseling individuals, couples, families, and groups under supervision. Focus on legal forms, professional writing of documents, treatments plans, and progress notes. Students will be trained in providing mental health counseling via telehealth, which includes reviewing law and ethics related to telehealth. Covers requirements for associate registration and licensure."catalog ↗
Why it is worth noticingA dedicated course on paperwork, telehealth law and BBS associate registration is genuinely rare — most programs bolt this onto law-and-ethics. The catch: EDPC 560 appears in the bulletin but is NOT on the department's published main-campus MFT/LPCC course schedule, so it is unclear whether current students actually take it.
School Administration and Leadership
"Introduces students to various leadership challenges and administrative issues in a school environment. Cross-listed as EDAD 624. This course is exclusively available to students admitted to an M.A. program. It serves as a foundational course in administration and leadership and is a core requirement for master's degree candidates in education."catalog ↗
Why it is worth noticingListed as ‘Organization & Leadership’ and required in Year 2 Summer of the MFT/LPCC schedule. It is a school-administration course, written for educators, that MFT students must pass. This is the clearest single artefact of the program living inside a School of Education — three of your 96 units go here.
Integration of Faith and Learning
"Examination of contemporary thinking about spirituality, worldviews, epistemology, ontology, and axiology as they relate to Christian and public education. Focuses on the development of educators who are critical thinkers and are able to examine, evaluate, and synthesize values, spirituality, and education."catalog ↗
Why it is worth noticingRequired (Year 2 Winter, listed as ‘Perspectives of Faith and Learning’). Note that it is framed for *educators*, not clinicians — the department's separate EDPC 510 Religion, Spirituality & Mental Health, which is the clinically-framed version, is the core course for other counseling specializations but does not appear on the MFT/LPCC schedule.
Multicultural Counseling (scheduled as ‘Individual & Cultural Differences’)
"Application of differential psychology to testing, learning, counseling, and school psychology procedures. Emphasis on cross-cultural, ethnic, and sex differences. Focus on the ‘self’ of the therapist in terms of fostering identity development, promoting cultural social justice, creating individual/community strategies for working with and advocating for diverse populations."catalog ↗
Why it is worth noticingThe ‘self of the therapist’ framing is the one place in the catalog where personal formation is named as course content — which matters here, because the program separately requires 20 hours of your own psychotherapy.
The whole degree, term by term
What you would actually take, in the order you would take it. Sequences change; check the current catalog before you count on any single term.
Seven quarters, lockstep, on the Riverside main campus — two academic years plus the summer between them. The design is didactic course plus a separate 1.5-unit ‘-P’ practicum companion, usually taken one to three quarters after the parent course; the bulletin describes most companions as role-play, self-help-group observation or research rather than client contact. Bulletin note: full-time master's students usually finish in four to five quarters and "most courses are offered in late afternoons, evenings, and summers," so part-time employment is contemplated. Units below are quarter units, from the department's published MFT/LPCC main-campus schedule. course sequence ↗
96 quarter units (≈ 64 semester units). The bulletin's licensure floor is "at least 90 units of postbaccalaureate study" — i.e. 90 quarter units, which is the §4980.36 quarter-unit minimum.units in total
- EDPC 561 Counseling Theory & Techniques (3)
- EDPC 607 Dynamics of Personality (3)
- EDPC 620 Marriage Family I Systems Intervention (3)
- EDPC 694 Individual & Cultural Differences (3)
- EDPC 564 Group Theory and Procedures (3)
- EDPC 573 School Psychology & Counseling Ethics and Law (3)
- EDPC 621 Marriage Family II Systems Intervention (3)
- EDPC 655 Advanced Counseling Theories (3)
- EDPC 562 Counseling Practicum (4.5)
- EDPC 615 Child, Partner & Elder Abuse (3)
- EDPC 615P Child, Partner & Elder Abuse Practicum (1.5)
- EDPC 631 Psychopathology (3)
- EDPC 666 Intervention Methods & Consultation (3)
- RSCH 504 Methods and Materials of Research (3)
- RSCH 504P Methods and Materials of Research Practicum (1.5)
- EDAD 524 Organization & Leadership (3)
- EDPC 564P Group Theory and Procedures Practicum (1.5)
- EDPC 607P Dynamics of Personality Practicum (1.5)
- EDPC 631P Psychopathology Practicum (1.5)
- EDPC 655P Advanced Counseling Theories Practicum (1.5)
- EDPC 504 Standardized Testing (3)
- EDPC 504P Standardized Testing Practicum (1.5)
- EDPC 554 Education and Career Planning (3)
- EDPC 554P Education and Career Planning Practicum (1.5)
- EDPC 620P Marriage Family I Systems Intervention Practicum (1.5)
- EDPC 645 Psychopharmacology (3)
- EDPC 645P Psychopharmacology Practicum (1.5)
- EDFO 512 Perspectives of Faith and Learning (3)
- EDPC 524 Lifespan Development (3)
- EDPC 524P Lifespan Development Practicum (1.5)
- EDPC 561P Counseling Theory & Technique Practicum (1.5)
- EDPC 610 Human Sexuality (3)
- EDPC 610P Human Sexuality Practicum (1.5)
- EDPC 694P Individual & Cultural Differences Practicum (1.5)
- EDPC 562 Counseling Practicum (4.5)
- EDPC 573P School Psychology & Counseling Ethics and Law Practicum (1.5)
- EDPC 621P Marriage Family II Systems Intervention Practicum (1.5)
- EDPC 666P Intervention Methods & Consultation Practicum (1.5)
- EDPC 715 Alcohol & Drug Addiction (3)
- EDPC 715P Alcohol & Drug Addiction Practicum (1.5)
How practicum actually works
Californian clinical training runs in two legally distinct stages, and the difference decides what a program can and cannot do for you.
A trainee is a student. You see clients while still enrolled, at a site your program approves, supervised by someone the site provides. This is practicum, and it is the stage a program controls. An associate — registered with the Board after you graduate — is no longer a student, is usually paid, and is working toward the 3,000 hours the license requires. The Board renamed this stage from “intern” to “associate” in 2018, so any page still saying “MFT intern” is quoting something out of date.
Hours you bank as a trainee count toward the 3,000, up to a limit, which is why the size and quality of a program’s placement matters long after graduation: a student who leaves with 1,000 hours starts the associate years a third of the way through them, and one who leaves with the 225-hour minimum starts at the beginning.
Practicum is also where a degree most often stops being on schedule. Coursework runs on a calendar the school controls; placement does not. The questions that matter are therefore all about who owns the problem of finding you a site — and the answer differs enormously between programs on this list.
What happens after the degree →
The school does not say
Nothing on this school’s published pages states who secures your placement. That is not the same as a bad answer - but it is the first question to ask admissions, and the specificity of the reply tells you a great deal. Thirty of the seventy-eight are in this position.
An opportunity for the student to participate in the counseling of individuals and groups under supervision, as a laboratory experience, prior to being placed for school-based experience in EDPC 565. the school’s own page →
The practicum is split in two ways and you need to hold both in your head. The first split is real clinical work versus lab work: EDPC 562 Counseling Practicum is the only course carrying client contact, taken twice for 9 quarter units total, and the bulletin says it is "Supervised practicum in a clinical setting required for LPCC and MFT students," graded S/U, gated behind EDPC 561, 564, 573 or 570, and 655 plus departmental approval. Everything else labeled ‘practicum’ on the schedule — the thirteen 1.5-unit ‘-P’ companions — is described in the bulletin as role-play, self-help-group visits and research, e.g. EDPC 615-P is "relevant therapeutic role-plays involving how to work with victims of abuse and their perpetrators, and/or conducting research in this domain." The second split is timing: clinical work begins unusually early, in the spring of year one, then pauses for three quarters and resumes in the final spring. The program total is 280 face-to-face hours plus a mandatory 20 hours of your own psychotherapy — paid by you, and a real cost line most programs do not carry. Separately, the bulletin notes MFT students "may begin up to 1300-hour of the 3000-hour of internship required for licensure after completing a minimum of 18 units of core courses in the counseling field," so trainee hours toward licensure can start once you are about a quarter and a half in. What La Sierra does not publish anywhere is the mechanics a prospective student most needs: who finds the site, whether there is a partner-site list or a placement fair, what the weekly hour commitment looks like, and what the individual/group supervision ratio is. The department's own ‘Steps to Completion’ page walks you through field practice using CBEST, CCTC criminal clearance and PRAXIS — requirements for the school-credential programs, not for LMFT trainees — which is a fair signal of where the department's administrative center of gravity sits. source ↗
Will this degree travel
Not COAMFTE accredited
That is not a defect — 66 of the 78 institutions on the Board’s list are in the same position, including most of the Cal States, and their graduates license in California every year.
It becomes a problem if you leave. Several states will not accept a non-COAMFTE degree without remedial coursework, and a few will not accept it at all. If there is any chance you move, check the destination board’s rules before you enroll, not after.
What the Board requires of any qualifying degree →
What it is, on paper
What it costs
The figure below is the institution’s own, from its own page, with the year it applies to. Multiply the per-unit rate by the actual unit count and add campus fees before comparing it with anything.
$730 a unit 2026-27 — source
What a month costs to live on while you study →
Getting in
The candidate must have a grade point average of B (3.00) or better in his/her overall program. source →
How its graduates did on the Board’s exam
Too few candidates to publish a rate
The Board recorded 7 first-time candidates from this school across the whole window, and this page does not print a percentage below 40. On a handful of candidates a single result moves the figure by tens of points, and a small program would be described by noise. It usually means the program is small, new, or both.
Recorded by the Board as La Sierra University. Its list is kept by institution and its names lag: a school that has since renamed appears under the name it had when the candidates sat.
What this number is, and what it is not
It describes candidates, not teaching. In 2022 the Council on Social Work Education removed licensing-exam pass rates from its accreditation standards, saying the data “may not be an equitable measure of program outcomes” — after the social-work exam board’s own analysis found first-time pass rates of 84% for white candidates and 45% for Black candidates. A program that enrolls more career-changers and more students of color will post a lower rate while teaching at least as well. The accrediting body with the most reason to want this metric examined it and stopped using it.
The denominator is not this year’s students. These are people who sat the exam during the window, often several years after graduating and sometimes after the program changed shape or owner.
It is published here because it is a real, official figure that is otherwise almost impossible to find — and it is published on this page only. There is no pass-rate column in the directory, nothing is sorted by it, and no school on this site is ranked against another.
July 2018 - December 2024, pooled (13 semiannual BBS reports) · the Board’s published exam results by school →
What people say about it
Quoted where the wording carries the meaning, linked in every case, opening in a new window. The tags are my reading of each source, not a measurement, and the unflattering ones are here too.
What to ask before you apply
None of these are answered on a program page, and all five change what the degree is actually worth to you.
The single question that separates programs. Ask for a list of current sites, and ask plainly whether the program places you or expects you to find your own. A rural or online student unable to find a site cannot graduate.
The Board publishes this by school, so the program cannot be the only source. Ask anyway, and see whether the answer matches.
Per-unit rates move. Multiply by the actual unit count and add campus fees before comparing anything.
The 500 couples-and-families hours are carved out of the 1,750 clinical ones, and they are the category associates most often finish short on. A program placing students in adult individual settings will not generate them.
Sometimes yes, sometimes with extra units, sometimes only in one delivery format. Get it in writing rather than from a brochure.
What I could not establish
Everything above is sourced. These are the things I looked for and could not establish - take them to admissions, and note how quickly and precisely they answer.
- Cohort size for the MFT/LPCC track — not published anywhere on the university or department site.
- Application deadlines for the counseling programs — not published; the admissions page carries none.
- Who finds the practicum site. La Sierra publishes no practicum handbook, no partner-site list and no statement of whether placement is program-arranged or student-found. The department's Forms & Handbooks page renders with no downloadable documents.
- Supervision mechanics at the practicum site — individual vs group ratio, weekly hour expectation, and whether the site supervisor or a faculty member carries the evaluation. Not published.
- No relational (couple/family) hour sub-minimum is published, even though the BBS requires relational hours for LMFT registration.
- EDPC 504 (Standardized Testing), EDPC 607 (Dynamics of Personality) and EDPC 666 (Intervention Methods & Consultation) appear on the department's published MFT/LPCC course schedule but have no course description in the 2026–27 Graduate Bulletin — only their ‘-P’ companions do, and EDPC 504 and 607 have no companion description either. Nine units of the required curriculum are therefore undocumented.
- The MFT/LPCC schedule assigns EDPC 573 Law & Ethics in Human Services (framed for "schools, clinical settings, sports, and other high-performance environments") rather than EDPC 570 Law & Ethics in Mental Health Services, which is the bulletin's LPCC/LMFT-specific California law-and-ethics course. Which one a current MFT student actually takes is unclear.
- The bulletin lists unit values for several EDPC courses (e.g. EDPC 620 and 621 at 4 units; the ‘-P’ companions at 1.0) that do not match the department course schedule (3 units and 1.5 respectively). The 96-unit total is taken from the schedule.
- The department's LPCC-track fact sheet is visibly out of date — it uses the retired "LPCC intern" terminology, gives EDPC 610 as ‘Child, Partner, and Elder Abuse’ and EDPC 615 as ‘Human Sexuality’ (the bulletin has them the other way round), and totals 102 units against the schedule's 96.
- No credible student discussion of this specific program was found on Reddit, Student Doctor Network, GradCafe or elsewhere. Searches surfaced only directory listings. That is itself informative: this is a small, low-visibility program.
- Sabbath scheduling: the bulletin establishes that this is a Seventh-day Adventist institution where "students are expected to respect the Sabbath," that university offices close Friday at noon and all day Saturday, and that Tuesdays 11 a.m.–noon are reserved for University Worship. It does not publish a class-meeting grid, so the practical Friday-evening/Saturday implications for the counseling cohort could not be confirmed from a published source — and neither could the question of whether Sabbath observance affects practicum-site scheduling.
Sources for this page (8)
- La Sierra University Graduate Bulletin 2026–27 (PDF)
- Department of School Psychology & Counseling — MA Counseling with MFT/LPCC Track: Main Campus Program course schedule (PDF)
- M.A. in Counseling with Marriage & Family Therapy specialization — admissions page
- School of Psychology & Counseling — department home
- School of Psychology & Counseling — course descriptions
- M.A. in Counseling (LPCC Track) departmental fact sheet (PDF, undated)
- School of Psychology & Counseling — Steps to Completion
- Academic Bulletins index