MFT EXAM

Question 1

When a Solution-Focused therapist, working with a client presenting with issues around
alcohol abuse, asks “What needs to be different with your drinking?”, they are beginning
to negotiate the:

a. solution talk of the therapy.
b. first-formula session task.
c. exceptions to the problem.
d. miracle question.

Answer 1

c. exceptions to the problem.

Question 2

An MFT works as a 1/3 time employee of a local high school. His primary responsibility is to meet with students together with their family members to help them understand and coordinate educational goals with teachers and guidance personnel. Occasionally, the MFT will hold a series of family therapy sessions when school guidance counselors indicate they believe the student and their families are in conflict about the student’s school activities. During the remainder of his work hours, the MFT has a solo private practice in which he bills insurance companies for his services, making use of a billing clearinghouse service. In this situation:

a. The MFTs work in the school is not considered healthcare, and therefore HIPAA does not apply at all.
b. Whether the MFTs work in the school is considered healthcare depends on the contract he has with the school.
c. Whether the MFTs work in the school is considered healthcare depends on the understanding created with each family, as to whether educational counseling or family therapy is being provided.
d. The MFTs work in the school is not considered healthcare, but HIPAA does apply any way because the Privacy Rule states that if any transfer of PHI is done electronically, HIPAA applies to the entire practice.

Answer 2

c. Whether the MFTs work in the school is considered healthcare depends on the understanding created with each family, as to whether educational counseling or family therapy is being provided.

Question 3

A couple comes to therapy because their three-year-old daughter is “out of control”. During the session the wife begins complaining that her husband is never home and she is left to deal with her daughter’s behavior. An initial goal that a Structural Family Therapist working with this family might set is to:
Select one:

a. help the couple function together as a cohesive executive subsystem.
b. look for disabling interactional sequences.
c. hypothesize as to why the daughter is so “out of control”
d. inquire about intergenerational themes.

Answer 3

a. help the couple function together as a cohesive executive subsystem.

Question 4

Research found one year following divorce to be the peak of maximum negative behaviors for children. Such behaviors were “most likely” sustained in:
Select one:

A. adolescents
B. both boys and girls
C. girls than in boys
D. boys than in girls

Answer 4

D. boys than in girls

Question 5

Which model of family therapy has demonstrated successful treatment outcomes for depression, intimacy and trust-related issues?
Select one:

a. Conjoint Couples Therapy.
b. Contextual Family Therapy.
c. Emotionally Focused Therapy.
d. Object Relations Therapy.

Answer 5

c. Emotionally Focused Therapy.

Question 6

Managed Care find all of the following family therapy models acceptable EXCEPT:
Select one:

a. solution-focused.
b. object relations.
c. structural.
d. strategic.

Answer 6

b. object relations.

Question 7

One of the risks of relationship-based interventions with domestic violence, agitating the dynamics in a way that increases violent tendencies, has been addressed by recent MFT outcome research. That research:
Select one:

a. The literature shows few benefits to individual violence counseling, such as “anger
management”.
b. Showed that the risk is small when working with partners where there is reciprocal
(both direction) violence and where they want to stay together.
c. Showed that the risk is real, and individual counseling and safety contracting is the best
approach in all cases.
d. The literature shows significant benefit to applying anger management in addition to
relationship counseling.

Answer 7

c. Showed that the risk is real, and individual counseling and safety contracting is the best
approach in all cases.

Question 8

You refer clients to a psychiatrist who keeps “stealing” your clients by referring them to a therapist in her group practice. You should:
Select one:

a. stop referring to her and find another psychiatrist.
b. report her to the board of ethics.
c. call the psychiatrist to tell her why you refer clients to her making it clear you want your clients back.
d. stop referring to her and tell colleagues she is unethical.

Answer 8

c. call the psychiatrist to tell her why you refer clients to her making it clear you want your clients back.

Question 9

Pick the answer that describes the relationship that the following symbol would denote:
Select one:

a. Conflictual triangle.
b. Diffused Dyad.
c. Rigidly bound triangle.
d. None of the above.

Answer 9

c. Rigidly bound triangle.

Question 10

A family therapist is working with a mother and 15 year-old daughter. Over the course of the therapy, the therapist reinforces with repeated praise, both mother and daughter’s success over the past week at not listening to Bulimia. The therapist then asks the
daughter to make contact with the person in her life this next week who would be least surprised at her success. This technique is called:
Select one:

a. mapping the relative influence of the problem.
b. historicizing unique outcomes.
c. restoring the subjugated narrative.
d. shaping behavior.

Answer 10

b. historicizing unique outcomes.

Question 11

A couple comes to therapy with their three children, two boys and a girl, ages 7, 9, and 13. The parents maintain that their 13-year-old son is the problem and contend that he doesn’t get along with anyone. He is frequently involved in arguments and exhibits oppositional behavior. As a family therapist you are most likely to view the problem as:
Select one:

A. recognize that the son is the patient and suggest he be seen alone.
B. family problem is a result of multigenerational issues.
C. son’s behavior is a manifestation of couple’s dysfunctional relationship.
D. son’s behavior is a symptom of a dysfunctional system.

Answer 11

D. son’s behavior is a symptom of a dysfunctional system.

Question 12

An MFT was contacted by the father of a 6 year-old boy requesting that she begin counseling to help the child adjust to the recent family divorce. Following the HIPAA
Privacy Rule, the therapist should:
Select one:

a. be sure to separate the child’s PHI and her therapy notes in her records.
b. request to see the section of the family’s divorce or separation agreement that grants the father authority to bring the child for medical care.
c. communicate with the mother to obtain her permission to treat the child.
d. carefully document all decisions she makes to ensure she can inform the Court correctly if she is called to testify.

Answer 12

a. be sure to separate the child’s PHI and her therapy notes in her records.

Question 13

A couple comes to therapy because they feel their sex life is not satisfying. The female reports that she is always anxious and is unable to reach orgasm and feels that her husband thinks she is an inadequate sex partner. The therapist prescribes a sensate focus exercise. During the next visit, the female partner
reports crying when touched. What is the most useful next step in treatment?
Select one:

A. Repeat the sensate focus exercise
B. Question the female partner about the nature of her crying during the sensate focus exercise
C. Provide couple communication skills
D. Take a detailed sex history

Answer 13

B. Question the female partner about the nature of her crying during the sensate focus exercise

Question 14

Paradoxical tasks given by the Strategic therapist are:
Select one:

A. expected to be particularly helpful in child management.
B. expected to provide insight.
C. expected to be thought of as ridiculous.
D. expected to be resisted.

Answer 14

D. expected to be resisted.

Question 15

During a session with a couple, a husband states to the therapist that his wife often nags and belittles him. The therapist’s intervention is to give the wife homework in which she is to only say positive things to her husband and abstain from any negative comments. When she appears to be negative or belittling to her husband he is to put his hand up and say, “Stop.” A feminist therapist would be critical of the above technique because it:
Select one:

A. gives the husband more power.
B. appears to be hierarchical.
C. is therapist-driven.
D. all of the above.

Answer 15

D. all of the above.

Question 16

An MFT in a 3-person group practice keeps her client PHI on her office computer. She uses clinical practice management software that keeps most information she needs conveniently organized. In addition to all insurance information, the software does her billing via direct internet connection to a payer clearinghouse, resulting in quick turn-around of payments, and also allows for email communications with the client,
keeping the emails organized and associated with the client record. The software also provides a text entry area to record the session information. However, during her original clinical training, she developed the habit of scribbling a few notes on a pad next to her as she conducted her therapy sessions, which she still does. Her computer is password protected, she uses an encryption technology for all client and insurance company electronic/email transactions and her handwritten session notes are kept on paper and
filed in a locked cabinet in her office. Two of the clinicians in the practice described above share the same family therapy case. One sees the parents in couples therapy, the other works with their 16 year old daughter individually, also offering occasional family meetings. The daughter often tells her therapist that there is information that she does not want disclosed to her parents. Which of the following statements is correct?
Select one:

a. In states where the ‘age of majority’, also called, ‘age of consent’ is 16, HIPAA PHI protection and access guidelines apply to the daughter’s request.
b. The therapists can exchange HIPAA protected PHI without authorization from either parent because they are within the same covered entity.
c. The therapists can exchange psychotherapy notes and other experiences without written authorization because they are in the same covered entity.
d. HIPAA Privacy Rules allow for the exchange of psychotherapy notes and counseling
content without authorization, and also even when opposed by the client, for the purposes
of normal healthcare operations.

Answer 16

c. The therapists can exchange psychotherapy notes and other experiences without written authorization because they are in the same covered entity.

Question 17

A family presents with a 7-year old child who seems to look for his parent’s acceptance and reassurance while answering every question the family therapist puts to her. When her parents express disagreement to what she has just expressed, she quickly adapts her position to that of her parents. This might be best described by of the following models:
Select one:

a. Bowen’s Model
b. Minuchin’s concept of enmeshment
c. Bowlby’s Attachment Theory
d. Framo’s Object Relations Model

Answer 17

d. Framo’s Object Relations Model

Question 18

“Conversational questions come from a position of not knowing and are the therapist’s primary tool.” This statement would most likely be made by a:
Select one:

A. Collaborative therapist.
B. Behavioral therapist.
C. Milan systemic.
D. Structural therapist.

Answer 18

A. Collaborative therapist.

Question 19

The Beavers System approach to family assessment includes:
Select one:
A. defining how the family structure maintains ineffective patterns.
B. interactional competence scales and interactional style scales.
C. tracking interactional patterns that maintain the problem.
D. family reports on cohesion and adaptability.

Answer 19

B. interactional competence scales and interactional style scales.

Question 20

The Intergenerational and the Experiential therapists are concerned with all of the following EXCEPT:
Select one:

A. relationships.
B. intergenerational themes.
C. anxiety.
D. sibling position.

Answer 20

D. sibling position.