NSU Horizons Winter 2008 - 2009

academic notes N ova Southeastern University’s Fischler School of Education and Human Services has been granted licensure by the New Jersey Commission on Higher Education to offer our Doctor of Education degree program in that state. Classes will commence in Trenton in fall 2009. The Fischler School is currently licensed to offer programs in 23 states, Puerto Rico, and one dozen foreign countries. This new site will allow the Fischler School to service more than 1,400 NSU bachelor’s and master’s degree recipients living in New Jersey as well as 300 current students. NSU alumni in the state include 896 K–12 teach- ers and administrators, 44 superintendents of schools, 50 speech-language pathologists, and 3 community college presidents. The Doctor of Education degree program offers students a menu-driven approach to customizing their educational experience with nine different concentration options and 12 minors, flexible curriculum choices, and multiple instructional delivery options. The five main components of the program are the core seminars, the concentration, the research elective, the electives/minors, and the applied dissertation. Students may elect to take their core seminars online or at one of our many instructional sites, includ- ing the new Trenton facility. With the approval of the New Jersey licensure, NSU now has the opportunity to help that state’s educators develop their skills and knowledge, allowing them and their students to compete effec- tively in a global society. To learn more about our efforts in New Jersey, please visit www.FischlerSchool .nova.edu/NewJersey or call 888-465-2861. ■ Fischler School’s Doctoral Degree Licensed in New Jersey S tudents know the Family Therapy Clinic at NSU’s Brief Therapy Institute as a live-supervision training facility. South Florida residents know it as a highly affordable provider of brief systemic therapy services. Run by the family therapy program at the Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences (SHSS), the clinic appointed a director who keeps family at the center of everything she does. Arlene Brett Gordon, Ph.D., is a licensed marriage and family therapist and a certified family life educator. She has been a mem- ber of the university family since 1981, starting as a first-grade teacher at the University School, where her daughter was a student and her mother was the school secretary. In 1990, Gordon enrolled in the family therapy program at SHSS. She has taught for various campus centers, but mostly for SHSS. Gordon also initiated ongoing training programs in New York and Florida for social service professionals who help families with extreme challenges. These trainings promote solution-focused therapy practices driven by her knowledge of child development. As direc- tor of a clinic guided by systemic philosophy, Gordon is also a researcher, teacher, and clinician. “The clinic helps clients resolve relationship conflicts in ways that benefit everyone involved,” she said. “We see our clients as collaborators in change for finding solutions that work best for that particular family. We work with individuals, families, couples—anyone who wants to work with us to improve their lives.” Family therapy is based on very different principles than other mental health practices, Gordon explained. “Systems therapists ask, ‘What is the client’s relationship to the problem? What would their life look like when the problem is solved?’ You’re thinking of your collaborative relationships with others instead of thinking only about yourself.” To increase the community’s access to family therapy, Gordon opened the clinic to clients on Saturdays, when more families are able to come for sessions. “We can’t always fit clients into our sched- ules,” Gordon said. “Systemic therapy teaches us to meet clients where they are, so it makes sense to help them come for services with the least possible disruption of their family schedules.” For more information, visit http://shss.nova.edu/BTI. ■ Collaborators in Change: NSU Therapy Clinic and Its Clients 4 horizons