Tips for MFT Doctoral Students

I really appreciated the education I received at Alliant and the wide variety of experiences and perspectives I was exposed to. I completed the PsyD in MFT and have a couple of tips that I want to pass on to students currently in this program (or those who are considering the program).

#1 - Be scheduled! Find a scheduling system you like and put everything on it (assignments, dissertation writing time, family/personal time, etc). I used Google Calendar for everything. Doing a doctoral program is time consuming and it is easy to get sucked into a hole of school work and research and neglect caring for yourself and your relationships. Calendaring will help.

#2 - Build relationships! Connect with your professors as humans. Building a relationship with them will make it easier to receive feedback from them. They truly do care about you and want you to succeed.

#3 - Work smart! Start working on your dissertation (or at least thinking about it) sooner than you think, then start organizing your other assignments around whatever topic you choose to explore. Doing this will give you a head start on the research you'll be doing for your dissertation.