How to Become a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (MFT)

Marriage is a common institution that most people aspire to be a part of. However, as the years have gone by the divorce statistics have continued to go up. With divorce as common as it has become it is no wonder that there is a great need for licensed marriage and family therapists. If you are someone who is interested in helping couples and families by getting a counseling job you will need to get some significant training. Through the counseling jobs that you take you will help your clients to work on their communication skills, anger issues, and other problems that may be plaguing their relationship or their family.

The first step towards getting counseling jobs is to get the proper education. You must start with a basic bachelor's degree. After you have achieved that you will want to pursue some further education in the form of a Masters degree. Traditionally most masters programs take two years to complete and you can choose one of several different concentrations. The most popular for marriage and family therapists are psychology, social work, and marriage and family therapy.

If you stay on track with your education you should be done with school in two years. However, it is not uncommon to need to spread it out a bit longer. While you are working through your degree you will hit a point where you can actually be certified to work as a trainee. This allows for you to get real world experience while pursuing your studies. As soon as you have reached the necessary number of credits you can begin this work, and the experience that you gain as a trainee will truly be invaluable.



Once you finish your studies and graduate you can formally register as an intern. This may be referred to as a MFTI. As an intern you will be supervising other professionals, taking extra training's, and even conducting your own therapy sessions. After 3,000 registered hours you will be able to take the board exam to try to achieve your counseling license. You must be fully licensed to get your own counseling jobs. Each state has different requirements so you will want to check at your individual states guidelines. In general though you can expect that any licensing test will require a written test and an oral presentation.

If you pass the listening exam you will be given your Marriage and Family Therapist license. As soon as you have this you will be able to take counseling jobs to help give people the help that you are able to offer. There are many different places that you can begin doing counseling jobs, but you will want to decide if you are looking for a private practice, a group practice, or in a different setting like a church or community center.