Marriage and Family Therapy and Counseling Commons^™

The Experiences Of Black Mft Doctoral Degree Holders With White Professors: A Phenomenological Study, Juliana M. Deans

Department of Family Therapy Dissertations and Applied Clinical Projects

The purpose of this research is to explore the experiences of Black doctoral degree holders’ interactions with their White professors in a Marriage and Family Therapy (MFT) program. There are a number of studies on the effectiveness of White professors and Black graduate students, but few focus specifically on the field of Marriage and Family Therapy. This study employed existential phenomenological methodology to examine Black MFT doctoral degree holders’ perceptions of their White professors. The experiences of six Black doctoral degree holders who attended COAMFTE-accredited programs were examined. The process involved an in-depth semi-structured interview. The study also revealed five …