There are many success stories within the department of psychiatry and behavioral health, but one of the “hidden gems” is the couple and family therapy program, usually called by the acronym CFT.
Couple and family therapy, sometimes referred to as marriage and family therapy, has a simple mission: to provide quality training in the theory and practice of marriage and family therapy.
“People think couple and family therapy is only for people who are in relationships or have children, and that’s not true,” says Sara Jordan, program director, graduate coordinator, and professor in the program. “We actually do a lot of our work with individuals, but from a systemic perspective.”
Jordan is surrounded by a small but outstanding team that saw the program provide over 4,900 sessions to nearly 350 clients in 2024. Dawn Moore, clinical director of the Center for Individual, Couple and Family Counseling; Brandon Eddy, associate professor; and Vaida Kazlauskaite, assistant professor, all play a vital role in this notable program that is one-of-a-kind in the state.
“We take 30 students a year, and what makes us unique is that we’re the only accredited face-to-face program in the state of Nevada for couple and family therapy,” says Jordan. “We’ve got award-winning teachers here, students and our clinic, which I think is a hidden gem here at UNLV.”
“We’re just growing and getting better in terms of our technology,” offers Moore. “Our clinical expertise, our part-time instructors are amazing, as well as our faculty. Our potential for growth in terms of being able to bill for services at some point in the future, plus being in the school of medicine and the future research potential there, as well as clinical potential, just again, makes the clinic a hidden gem on campus and for the community at large, as well.”
“Being here in Las Vegas as a training facility, we get to see clients from all different walks of life," explains Jordan. "We have people coming from all over the country, as well as international students that have come to our program, because I think we have so much to offer in terms of the training piece. Not to mention the research and other things we have going on.”
“I really am proud of the outreach that our program has,” says Eddy. “We are in medical facilities, we’re in private practice, we’re in various agencies, such as the VA [Veterans Affairs], [that] bridge counseling to help with addiction services. And so I think our students have a lot of opportunities to go to different places with internships and serve in the community, and they can really cater their experience to what they want it to be.”
Eddy is notable as one of the program’s most decorated faculty, having won two recent awards for teaching. “This last year, I was awarded the 2025 UNLV Distinguished Teaching Award. Recently, I was awarded with the 2025 Regents Teaching Award, which goes to one individual among all the higher education institutions.”
In addition to all of the ongoing training for students, the program is also offering a new Medical Family Therapy Certificate. “I think our students are really excited about the new medical family therapy certificate,” says Kazlauskaite, “which is going to be online. It’s not just available for our students, but also all students nationally. I think that’s a really great opportunity to get certified and learn how to work in an integrated healthcare community as an accredited program.”
A student that obtains this certificate can promote themselves as a medical family therapist, which means that they are able to work in other settings, rather than the traditional clinical settings, for example, a hospital or a cancer treatment center.
“The training in medical family therapy will really help a student or a clinician work with families that are coping with, for example, diabetes. When a family member gets diagnosed with diabetes, it affects the entire family system because they have to change the way they eat, the way they exercise, so a clinician trained in medical family therapy can now assist those families in those circumstances,” adds Kazlauskaite.
The CFT program is rare for many reasons, most notably of which it is housed within a medical school, which makes it unique for internship placement, for doing research, and getting a specialized certificate.
Says Eddy, “In the last couple years, we’ve had students go to Japan and Scotland to present their research. We’ve also had one of our students win the Rebel of the Year Award. Another student won the Outstanding Graduate Student Award, and another student was one of the speakers at commencement. Our students are doing really good things in the program.”
“Facility-wise, I think our clinic, not only just here at UNLV, but around the country, we have one of the biggest clinical training spaces,” says Moore. “We have 15 therapy rooms, which is pretty unheard of for space in terms of training so it just opens up lots of opportunities. The culture that the clinic creates, the year that these students spend getting live supervision, they’re just so much more prepared than the average student in another graduate program. They’re ready to hit the road in any type of internship site. It could be private practice, it could be hospital, it could be addictions. And I think that’s just what differentiates us. On top of that, they’ve developed this appreciation for supervision and consultation that will stay with them for a lifetime.”
