Congratulations on getting registered as MFT intern.

I wish I could tell you how to find agencies dealing with Families and couples,(except for searching them in craigslist like every one) but I have been trying to find an internship site to get MFT kids hour in San Francisco Bay Area myself for a while.

Anyway, I'm writing this to say hi because nobody has replied to you so far, and I posted similar topic while ago and did not get a lot of responses either. (funny, counselors do not seem so interested in helping others after all.)
Good luck to you.

Hello David.
I think, you should help me write a book using my 20-year experiences with a David Koresh-like sociopath-resulting in 9 children and my remarriage to a man who was sexually molested as a child by his older sister.

Some day, I want to travel and teach women (and men) how to avoid relationships with those of sociopathic (is that a word?) tendencies.
Actually, they prey on enablers, so the first line of defense is to identify one's tendency to be an enabler.

Soni

I have stayed away from this thread because I do not live in the San Francisco area. I think one reason for a sparse response may be because the request is geographically limited. David, first congratulations. Second, if you have difficulty around the Bay area look to other communities. I was a clinical manager in Sacramento a few years back and there were plenty of intern jobs available. I now live in Bakersfield and there is no shortage of jobs for interns. I wish you luck.

For family work, try YFES Youth and Family Enrichment Services. They have a good reputation.

For child therapy hours, there are many agencies. A couple I can vouch for are The Children's Place in Redwood City. Also, if you are bilingual, directly contact the family center at Fair Oaks elementary school in Redwood City. Or any of the Family Centers. They seem to be well run.

There's not much couples work, but it is lucrative. Check out Gottman Inst. for compelling training.

Regarding child hours and couples, I worked as a trainee and am working as an intern in a public school setting through an agency and through the actual school system in Los Angeles. I am sure they have this outside of LA as well. It is not paid but there is a great opportunity to work with couples, families and children individually. One of the best advantages is that the children at a school setting never cancel! I am getting more hours toward my license than many of my cohort in other settings.
Hope this helps someone out there.

Hi there,

I made a website because of the lack of information about what is out there in terms of jobs and internships in the Bay Area. The URL is mftsfbay.blogspot.com and lists all the agencies and jobs I've come across. Feel free to contact me if you have questions or know of other sites. (Contact me through the website not Tribe, I think gmail is spam filtering my Tribe messages.) Thanks.

There are really lots and lots of places to look in the Bay Area. I think many mft interns don't want to talk about the internship process, not because they do not want to be helpful, but because the majority of us ( who are generally not well off by other financial means, like a trust fund) are really burned out and bitter about the whole process. I know for me, at my leg of the journey with 285 hours to go ( all in the kid / couple area) I'm liable to pull the sunshine out of any squeeky new intern's eyes. And that always feels terrible.

I feel like the crusty sailor who has the new stow-away ship boy aboard who wants to know the thrills of sailing the open blue.

Like, recently I had to let a new intern know that it's not going to be very likely that she will be able to acquire all of her kid/couple hours through the particular private practice internship she chose. It's just not.

And while there are plenty of places to rack up the kid hours, most pay about 12/hour with no health coverage and they will give you 500 extra dollars if one of the kids bites you in a way that breaks your skin.

Really. I am not making this up.

I've heard all manner of evil stories from interns just trying to get their kid hours at local bay area agencies. Mostly from Fred Finch, Sonoma, Edgewood, and Huck Finn house.

But I love my clients and I love my private practice and one day, maybe three years from now I will knock down all those 285 hours just in time to fork up huge sums of money to take two exams. And in the end I am sure it will be all worth it.