Marriage and Family Therapist
Marriage and Family Therapist
Career Overview
Marriage and family therapists help people work through challenges involving relationships, family life, and mental and emotional well-being. They may work with individuals, couples, or families and use evidence-based counseling approaches to help clients build healthier relationships and coping skills.
Education
A master’s degree in marriage and family therapy, psychology, counseling, or a related mental-health field is typically required. Programs include supervised clinical experience, and licensing or professional registration requirements vary by location.
Future Outlook
The outlook is strong. Demand for mental-health and relationship-support services is expected to continue growing, with integrated care and broader access to mental-health services creating opportunities for therapists.
Work Environment
Marriage and family therapists work in private practices, mental-health centers, counseling services, hospitals, community organizations, and other healthcare or social-service settings. Many work full time, while some offer evening or weekend appointments to meet clients’ schedules.
Recommended High School Courses
- Psychology
- Communication
- Sociology
- Health science
- Social science
- Child Psychology
- Computer Studies
- Active Learning - Understanding the implications of new information for both current and future problem-solving and decision-making.
- Active Listening - Giving full attention to what other people are saying, taking time to understand the points being made, asking questions as appropriate, and not interrupting at inappropriate times.
- Complex Problem Solving - Identifying complex problems and reviewing related information to develop and evaluate options and implement solutions.
- Coordination - Adjusting actions in relation to others' actions.
- Critical Thinking - Using logic and reasoning to identify the strengths and weaknesses of alternative solutions, conclusions or approaches to problems.
- Instructing - Teaching others how to do something.
- Judgment and Decision Making - Considering the relative costs and benefits of potential actions to choose the most appropriate one.
- Learning Strategies - Selecting and using training/instructional methods and procedures appropriate for the situation when learning or teaching new things.
- Management of Personnel Resources - Motivating, developing, and directing people as they work, identifying the best people for the job.
- Monitoring - Monitoring/Assessing performance of yourself, other individuals, or organizations to make improvements or take corrective action.
- Negotiation - Bringing others together and trying to reconcile differences.
- Persuasion - Persuading others to change their minds or behavior.
- Reading Comprehension - Understanding written sentences and paragraphs in work related documents.
- Service Orientation - Actively looking for ways to help people.
- Social Perceptiveness - Being aware of others' reactions and understanding why they react as they do.
- Speaking - Talking to others to convey information effectively.
- Systems Analysis - Determining how a system should work and how changes in conditions, operations, and the environment will affect outcomes.
- Systems Evaluation - Identifying measures or indicators of system performance and the actions needed to improve or correct performance, relative to the goals of the system.
- Time Management - Managing one's own time and the time of others.
- Writing - Communicating effectively in writing as appropriate for the needs of the audience.
- Clerical - Knowledge of administrative and clerical procedures and systems such as word processing, managing files and records, stenography and transcription, designing forms, and other office procedures and terminology.
- Customer and Personal Service - Knowledge of principles and processes for providing customer and personal services. This includes customer needs assessment, meeting quality standards for services, and evaluation of customer satisfaction.
- English Language - Knowledge of the structure and content of the English language including the meaning and spelling of words, rules of composition, and grammar.
- Law and Government - Knowledge of laws, legal codes, court procedures, precedents, government regulations, executive orders, agency rules, and the democratic political process.
- Philosophy and Theology - Knowledge of different philosophical systems and religions. This includes their basic principles, values, ethics, ways of thinking, customs, practices, and their impact on human culture.
- Psychology - Knowledge of human behavior and performance; individual differences in ability, personality, and interests; learning and motivation; psychological research methods; and the assessment and treatment of behavioral and affective disorders.
- Sociology and Anthropology - Knowledge of group behavior and dynamics, societal trends and influences, human migrations, ethnicity, cultures and their history and origins.
- Therapy and Counseling - Knowledge of principles, methods, and procedures for diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation of physical and mental dysfunctions, and for career counseling and guidance.
- Category Flexibility - The ability to generate or use different sets of rules for combining or grouping things in different ways.
- Deductive Reasoning - The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
- Flexibility of Closure - The ability to identify or detect a known pattern (a figure, object, word, or sound) that is hidden in other distracting material.
- Fluency of Ideas - The ability to come up with a number of ideas about a topic (the number of ideas is important, not their quality, correctness, or creativity).
- Inductive Reasoning - The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
- Information Ordering - The ability to arrange things or actions in a certain order or pattern according to a specific rule or set of rules (e.g., patterns of numbers, letters, words, pictures, mathematical operations).
- Near Vision - The ability to see details at close range (within a few feet of the observer).
- Oral Comprehension - The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
- Oral Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
- Originality - The ability to come up with unusual or clever ideas about a given topic or situation, or to develop creative ways to solve a problem.
- Problem Sensitivity - The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing there is a problem.
- Selective Attention - The ability to concentrate on a task over a period of time without being distracted.
- Speech Clarity - The ability to speak clearly so others can understand you.
- Speech Recognition - The ability to identify and understand the speech of another person.
- Speed of Closure - The ability to quickly make sense of, combine, and organize information into meaningful patterns.
- Written Comprehension - The ability to read and understand information and ideas presented in writing.
- Written Expression - The ability to communicate information and ideas in writing so others will understand.
- Counsel clients or patients regarding personal issues.
- Teach life skills or strategies to clients or their families.
- Develop treatment plans for patients or clients.
- Maintain client records.
- Collect information about clients.
- Counsel clients regarding interpersonal issues.
- Interview clients to gather information about their backgrounds, needs, or progress.
- Confer with clients to discuss treatment plans or progress.
- Collaborate with other professionals to assess client needs or plan treatments.
- Evaluate characteristics of individuals to determine needs or eligibility.
- Refer clients to community or social service programs.
- Evaluate the effectiveness of counseling or educational programs.
- Monitor clients to evaluate treatment progress.
- Supervise workers providing client or patient services.
- Advise others on social or educational issues.
- Help clients get needed services or resources.
- Lead classes or community events.
- Present social services program information to the public.
- Write reports or evaluations.
- Counsel clients or patients with substance abuse issues.
Schools
Abilene Christian Univers...
Appalachian State Univers...
Arcadia University
Arizona State University
Azusa Pacific University
Barry University
Brigham Young University
Campellsville University
Central Connecticut State...
Columbia International Un...
Concordia University-wisc...
Dallas Baptist University
Drexel University
East Tennessee State Univ...
Eastern University
Fairfield University
Fresno Pacific University...
Gonzaga University
Grand Canyon University
Hampton University
Hofstra University
Hope International Univer...
Indiana Wesleyan Universi...
John Brown University
Kansas State University-...
Lamar University
Lee University
Liberty University
Loma Linda University
Loyola University- New Or...
Manhattan College
Messiah University
Mississippi College
Mount Mercy University
Northwest Nazarene Univer...
Nova Southeastern Univers...
Nyack College
Oral Roberts University
Oregon Institute Of Techn...
Our Lady Of The Lake Univ...
Pepperdine University
Pfeiffer University
Prescott College
Purdue University- Northw...
Regent University
Regis University
Saint Cloud State Univers...
Saint Louis University-ma...
Saint Mary's College Of C...
South Dakota State Univer...
Stetson University
Syracuse University
Texas Women's University
The King's University- So...
University Of Houston- Cl...
University Of Illinois- S...
University Of North Alaba...
University Of Phoenix
University Of San Diego
University Of San Francis...
University Of West Alabam...
University Of Wisconsin-...
Valdosta State University
Wheaton College- Illinois...
Acts Seminaries
Briercrest College And...
Lakehead University- O...
Trinity Western Univer...
University Of Guelph
University Of Winnipeg
Approx Salary Expectation
Low End:
$43,000.00 /yr
Avg/Med:
$64,000.00 /yr
High End:
$112,000.00 /yr
References
Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, Occupational Outlook Handbook, https://www.bls.gov/ooh/.
Trend Analysis - Explorer the Market, Labour Market Information, Government of Canada https://www.jobbank.gc.ca/trend-analysis.
O*NET OnLine, National Center for O*NET Development, https://www.onetonline.org/.
Trend Analysis - Explorer the Market, Labour Market Information, Government of Canada https://www.jobbank.gc.ca/trend-analysis.
O*NET OnLine, National Center for O*NET Development, https://www.onetonline.org/.