A new free online course, created by the , aims to help prepare clinicians to better serve the youth and families in front of them.
Core Elements of Systemic Family Therapy: Evidence-Based Skills for Working with Families and Youth was designed to equip clinicians with practical skills to assess families, engage caregivers, strengthen communication and support collaborative problem-solving. To start, the self-paced course includes 12 continuing education units for providers licensed under Florida’s Chapter 490 and 491 boards.
Turning policy into practice
The course grew from a central workforce question: Does Florida have enough clinicians prepared to deliver the quality family-based services federal and state policies are calling for?
The Family First Prevention Services Act of 2018 expanded federal support for evidence-based mental health, substance use and parenting services for children and families at risk of entering the child welfare system. Its goal is to address emerging needs earlier, strengthen families and help prevent children from being removed from their homes. But passing a policy does not automatically create the workforce needed to carry it out.
As Florida moved toward implementation, the Florida Center for Behavioral Health Workforce met with provider organizations, payers and other community stakeholders to understand the barriers they faced.
Their concerns were consistent. Florida’s critical shortage of marriage and family therapists meant other types of clinicians would need to help meet the growing need. However, many of those clinicians were trained to focus on individuals and lacked a foundation in systemic family therapy.
Traditional evidence-based family therapy programs presented another challenge. They can be expensive to establish, require extensive training and are often difficult to sustain when agencies experience staff turnover.
"Our stakeholders turned to us and said, ‘We need you,’” said FCBHW Executive Director Courtney Whitt, PhD.
The center focused on a practical question: How could Florida build on the skills of its existing behavioral health workforce while making specialized, evidence-based training more accessible?
Licensed mental health counselors, clinical social workers, psychologists and other behavioral health professionals share many foundational clinical competencies. Although they may not specialize in family therapy, they frequently encounter children and families who need support.
“These families are coming through the door whether clinicians feel prepared or not,” Whitt said. “We want to equip Florida’s existing workforce with the foundational, evidence-based skills to respond effectively.”
Distilling decades of research into practical skills
Rather than training clinicians in a single family therapy model, the course focuses on core elements shared across evidence-based approaches.
“We took what would typically be taught across a two-year marriage and family therapy program and translated it into focused micro skills for clinicians who have not had that specialized training,” said Everette Coffman, PhD, a faculty member in USF’s Marriage and Family Therapy Program.
Coffman developed the course in conjunction with USF Marriage and Family Therapy Program faculty members Ryan Henry, PhD, and Leury Peña, PhD. Together, they distilled decades of research into practical skills clinicians can apply across treatment settings and approaches.
The curriculum covers family assessment, caregiver engagement, communication coaching, collaborative problem-solving and other essential family interventions. It also helps clinicians shift from an individual perspective to a systemic one.
“You are not looking at the presenting concern only from an individual standpoint,” Peña said. “You need to understand the concern from the perspectives of everyone involved and examining how each person within the family system affects the others.”
Learning through practice
The course moves beyond a traditional learn-and-quiz continuing education format.
Participants follow one family through a series of case vignettes, watch clinicians
demonstrate each skill and practice the interventions through interactive role-plays
with a clinical faculty-developed AI chatbot operating within a closed AI system.
Each module in the course follows the sequence: learn, watch, practice and receive
feedback.
“What makes this course different is that participants actually demonstrate what they have learned through the role-plays,” Henry said. “They receive immediate feedback and can practice again.”
Participants begin with written responses, giving them time to think through how they would apply a new technique. They can then advance to voice-based role-plays that more closely reflect the pace and pressure of a clinical session. After each exercise, the AI chatbot provides feedback on the learner’s strengths and areas for improvement.
The goal is to help clinicians build confidence before introducing unfamiliar techniques during an actual family session.
“Working with multiple people in the room can feel overwhelming, particularly when a clinician has been trained primarily to work with individuals,” Coffman said. “Practice and repetition give clinicians an opportunity to become more comfortable, strengthen their skills and remain present with the family.”
Expanding access across Florida
The course is designed for Florida-based licensed mental health counselors, marriage and family therapists, clinical social workers, psychologists, registered interns, student therapists and other licensed healthcare providers authorized to practice psychotherapy in the state. It is particularly relevant for professionals who work with children or adolescents but have limited training in family systems.
By making the training free, online and available on demand, the center hopes to remove barriers for both individual clinicians and behavioral health organizations.
“Offering this course at no cost can help more clinicians develop these skills so high-quality services are available to those who need them most, when they need them and where they need them,” said Whitt. That’s pretty much the name of the game at the Florida Center for Behavioral Health Workforce.”
The course was developed by the Florida Center for Behavioral Health Workforce in partnership with the USF College of Behavioral and Community Sciences Marriage & Family Therapy Program and Partnership to End Addiction.
is now available online. The course is free, self-paced and includes 12 CEUs for providers under Florida’s Chapter 490 and 491 boards. Approval for additional Florida regulatory boards is being pursued.
About the Florida Center for Behavioral Health Workforce
The Florida Center for Behavioral Health Workforce (FCBHW) was established by the
Florida Legislature in July 2024 to strengthen the state’s behavioral health workforce
and ensure all Floridians have access to timely, high-quality care. Housed within
the 51’s College of Behavioral and Community Sciences and
the Louis de la Parte Florida Mental Health Institute, the FCBHW advances data-driven
solutions through research, education, policy and collaboration. FCBHW serves the
entire state through its mission to grow, retain and innovate Florida’s behavioral
health workforce.