Domain D3 · Designing and Conducting Treatment · 17% of the exam
Designing and Conducting Treatment: treatment planning and intervention across models
Outline: draftBy The Licensure Professor
Study material in progress. This is a lesson outline, not finished lesson text. Nothing on this page is official exam content. Items were written for this site and checked against published sources. They have not yet been reviewed by a licensed marriage and family therapist.
Learning objectives
- Build a treatment plan with goals that fit the client system and the chosen model.
- Apply interventions from structural, strategic, Bowenian, experiential, solution-focused, narrative, and emotionally focused models.
- Plan and run conjoint, individual, and multi-family formats.
- Adapt treatment to culture, diversity, and context.
- Describe how AI tools may support treatment planning and where a therapist remains responsible.
Key terms
- Treatment plan
- Reframing
- Enactment
- Restructuring
- Miracle question
- Externalizing
- Emotionally focused therapy
- Differentiation
- Homework and directives
- AI in treatment planning
Suggested sources
- Nichols, M. P., & Davis, S. D. (2020). Family therapy: Concepts and methods (12th ed.). Pearson.
- Goldenberg, H., Stanton, M., & Goldenberg, I. (2017). Family therapy: An overview (9th ed.). Cengage.
- Minuchin, S. (1974). Families and family therapy. Harvard University Press.
- Kerr, M. E., & Bowen, M. (1988). Family evaluation: An approach based on Bowen theory. W. W. Norton.
- Gurman, A. S., Lebow, J. L., & Snyder, D. K. (Eds.). (2015). Clinical handbook of couple therapy (5th ed.). Guilford Press.
- American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy. (2026). AAMFT code of ethics (effective January 1, 2026). https://www.aamft.org/common/Uploaded%20files/Legal%20Ethics/AAMFT%20Code%20of%20Ethics.pdf
- Association of Marital and Family Therapy Regulatory Boards. (2026). AMFTRB MFT national examination handbook for candidates (2027 ed.). https://ptcny.com/pdf/AMFTRB.pdf
Ethics content on this section follows the AAMFT Code of Ethics (American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy).