The American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT) is the only professional body which can approve a program at the national level. In contrast to the National Association of Social Workers, the AAMFT does not have a program in place to approve continuing education trainings. The AAMFT provides CEUs exclusively for their own programming (e.g. the Systemic Family Therapy Conference, programs offered through their online education platform Teneo) or pre-approval/approval for accredited colleges, universities, or established post-degree training programs. 

This leaves organizations providing continuing education in a position where they would have the burden of applying for, and paying the associated fee for, each individual LMFT CE program with each individual state. Additionally, they would have to ensure that each program met the criteria for each state, which can vary to a significant degree. This quickly becomes a costly and cumbersome process. Typically, organizations only apply for CE sponsorship in states where therapists are unable to apply for retroactive CEUs as these states often provide a list of CE sponsors and will not accept CEUs from a program that is not provided by one of the pre-approved organizations. NEAFAST, nor the Massachusetts Board of Allied Mental Health and Human Service Professions, have implemented such a policy.

At this point, NEAFAST has no intention of removing the ability to apply for retroactive CEUs, allowing members to choose which trainings are most pertinent to their work regardless of whether or not the provider has sought approval to provide LMFT CEUs in Massachusetts. Currently, LMFTs are unlikely to see major changes in whether or not organizations seek approval from NEAFAST as it will not be seen as a financially viable option until the Massachusetts’ LMFT population increases or the AAMFT creates a continuing education approval program. NEAFAST understands this is an additional cost to each LMFT and works to keep application fees for individual retroactive CEUs affordable. 

Should you have any questions about whether or not a program will qualify for retroactive CEUs, please visit THIS page. 

For more information regarding the AAMFT's Membership Course Pre-Approval Program, please see THIS page.