Marriage and Family Counselors

• Encourage clients to discuss their emotions and experiences
• Help clients process their reactions and adjust to difficult changes in their life, such as divorce and layoffs
• Guide clients through the process of making decisions about their future
• Help clients develop strategies and skills to change their behavior and to cope with difficult situations
• Refer clients to other resources or services in the community, such as support groups or inpatient treatment facilities
• Complete and maintain confidential files and mandated records

To become a marriage and family therapist, applicants need a master’s degree in psychology, marriage and family therapy, or a related mental health field. All states require marriage and family therapists to be licensed. Licensure requires a master’s degree and 2,000 to 4,000 hours of post-degree supervised clinical experience, sometimes referred to as an internship or residency. In addition, therapists must pass a state-recognized exam and complete annual continuing education classes.

Marriage and family therapists held about 41,500 jobs in 2016. The largest employers of marriage and family therapists were as follows:

Marriage and family therapists work in a variety of settings, such as mental health centers, substance abuse treatment centers, and hospitals. They also work in private practice and in Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs), which are mental health programs that some employers provide to help employees deal with personal problems.

The median annual wage for marriage and family therapists was $48,790 in May 2017. The median wage is the wage at which half the workers in an occupation earned more than that amount and half earned less. The lowest 10 percent earned less than $31,390, and the highest 10 percent earned more than $81,760.

In May 2017, the median annual wages for marriage and family therapists in the top industries in which they worked were as follows: