Marriage and Family Therapist (MFT)

What is a Marriage and Family Therapist (MFT)?

The following job responsibilities are common for individuals in marriage and family therapist roles:

• Engage in counseling sessions with patients individually, as a couple, or as a family
• Encourage patients to share their thoughts and feelings openly during sessions in order to best evaluate patient needs
• Educate patients on strategies for overcoming discord, repairing relationships, and maintaining a pleasant home environment
• Refer patients, when needed, to other services when counseling and behavior modifications are insufficient at treating issues
• Help patients better understands the needs of the people they share homes with

A Day in the Life

Marriage and family therapists are mental health counselors who’ve chosen to focus their efforts on strengthening and repairing the bonds between members of a family. They may conduct individual, couples, or family counseling sessions, but in each session, the goal is to treat relationships over individuals. They do this by working to understand family dynamics and roles, and use their training and experience to identify issues and offer solutions for resolving those issues and improving home life.

When working with patients, marriage and family therapists listen to patients in order to understand and evaluate needs. They may look for signs of stress, abuse, psychological disorders, or substance abuse that could be causing or contributing to discord in the family. Their goal is to arm patients with strategies for overcoming these issues and dealing with partners and children in a healthy—rather than destructive—manner. This may include thought and behavior modification or continued counseling.

When a marriage or family therapist suspects abuse or neglect, he/she may work with social workers to investigate suspicions further. Additionally, the therapist may refer patients with treatable psychological disorders to psychiatrists who can prescribe medications that may improve conditions. Marriage and family therapists may work with couples before they get married to solidify the marriage decision, after marriage to repair bonds when things aren’t working, or after divorce to help people move on.

Typical Work Schedule

Most Marriage and Family Therapists have a full-time schedule of 40 – 50 hours but the schedule is typically flexible to accommodate the needs of the clients. Different types of clients may have different available hours depending on their working and family schedule. The majority of marriage and family therapists use appointment reservation system to manage their schedule with the clients. This could, in rare cases, mean working on evening and weekends. Experienced therapists with large number of clients may also need to increase the total number of working hours per week to accommodate the larger number of clients. It should be noted that therapists have some commitment to clients who started treatment with them and cannot simply end the treatment at any time.

Projected Job Growth

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor statistics, the demand for marriage and family therapists is expected to increase by at least 22 % from 2019 to 2029. This is one of the highest projected growth compared to all other jobs which is directly related to the social changes that happened during the recent years. It is also attributed to the rising use of integrated care which is a relatively new trend in therapy where multiple specialists will hand multiple problems at one time. It is estimated that 50% of all marriages in the U.S. end in divorce or separation. This divorce rate ranks the U.S. as the third highest country regarding the divorce rate. These numbers highlight the need the significance of the problem and the need for marriage and family therapists.

Typical Employers

Marriage and family therapists may work in different settings including therapy centers that provide individual as well as family therapy services, substance abuse services and other mental health services. You may also work with organizations or authorities focused on child abuse or domestic violence which is usually directly related to underlying family problems. You may also work in specialized offices of other medical organizations and outpatient care centers. Many of these options include state or federal entities. Another popular option is private practice which requires enough experience and patience to build your own network of clients and connections.