Annual Publication 2025 FINAL 05292025 accessible - Flipbook - Page 53
“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, PhD, program director, graduate coordinator, and
professor in the program. “We actually do a lot of our work with
individuals, but from a systemic perspective.”
Dr. 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, MS, clinical director of the Center
for Individual, Couple and Family Counseling; Brandon Eddy, PhD,
associate professor; and Vaida Kazlauskaite, PhD, assistant
professor, all play a vital role in this notable program that is oneof-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 Dr. 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,”
says 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.”
“I think that’s a gem of the program too,” adds Dr. Jordan. “Being
here in Las Vegas as a training facility, we get to see clients from
all different walks of life. 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 Dr.
Eddy. “We are in medical facilities, we’re in private practice, we’re
in various agencies, such as the VA [Veterans Affairs], 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.”
In addition to all of the ongoing training for students, the program
is also offering a new Medical Family Therapy Certi昀椀cate. “I think
our students are really excited about the new medical family
therapy certi昀椀cate,” says Dr. 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 certi昀椀ed
and learn how to work in an integrated healthcare community as
an accredited program.” A student that obtains this certi昀椀cate
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 the 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 Dr.
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 certi昀椀cate as well,” says Dr. Jordan.
Adds Dr. 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, you
know, that year that these students spend … getting that 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.”
SUMMER 2025 MAGAZINE
53
PHOTO: JULIAN FOX
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.
Dr. 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.”
L-R: SARA JORDAN, PHD; VAIDA KAZLAUSKAITE, PHD; BRANDON EDDY, PHD; AND DAWN MOORE, MS
T
here 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.
