Steps On How To Become A Marriage Counselor

If you’re interested in a mental health job, you may try becoming a marital counselor. Marriage counselors use solo and pair therapy to help their patients maintain their mental health. Learning more about how marital counselors get their schooling, obtain a license, and practice might help you determine if this particular career path is suitable for you.

What is a marriage counselor?

marital counselors, often known as marital and family therapists, are highly educated mental health experts that treat couples. They provide clients with the therapeutic tools they need to better their relationships, handle conflict, and manage their mental health. Marriage counselors frequently function as mediators in difficult situations, asking questions to broaden the discourse and listening to patients individually to help them prepare for couples therapy.

What does a marriage counselor do?

Marriage counselors meet with individuals, couples, and families in one-on-one sessions to hear both sides of a topic. During group sessions, a marriage counselor may guide discourse, role-play a situation, collect data for a mental health diagnosis, or give specialized therapy. For example, a couple wanting to marry may seek assistance from a marriage counselor to ensure they are prepared for a long-term commitment.

Marriage counselors also often assist couples in discussing important subjects and bolstering their relationships, especially in the following areas:

• Communication
• Intimacy
• Fidelity
• Differences in opinion about raising children or living with extended family
• Substance abuse
• Anger
• Trauma
• Grief

How to become a marriage counselor

Here are the nine steps you can follow to become a marriage counselor:

1. Earn a bachelor’s degree

Marriage counselors begin their education with a four-year degree from an accredited college or university. In the United States, this accreditation comes from the Commission on Accreditation for Marriage and Family Therapy Education (COAMFTE) and the American Psychological Association (APA), which examine the program to ensure its academic and clinical requirements are sufficient preparation for a mental health career.While master’s programs in marriage counseling don’t typically require a specific bachelor’s degree, aspiring marriage counselors often major in the following relevant subjects:

• Psychology
• Sociology
• Psychiatry
• Nursing
• Counseling
• Social work
• Interdisciplinary social sciences

Regardless of your degree, consider pursuing an internship in mental health to help you prepare for your master’s program. You may also verify your academic readiness by taking courses in psychology, human development, human biology, and psychological exams and measurements.

2. Take the entrance exam for your intended master’s program

The General Record Examination (GRE) is a required entry exam for various master’s degrees. Consider contacting the admissions departments of the institutions you want to apply to to check that you satisfy all of the criteria. If they demand a GRE, you can take it, acquire a record of your score, and send it to your desired schools along with your other admission paperwork.

3. Acquire a master’s degree

Most employers require marriage counselors to earn at least a master’s degree in marriage and family therapy or a related mental health field, which typically must be COAMFTE and APA accredited. Master’s programs generally take between two to three years to complete, including 48 to 60 credit hours and 250 hours of supervised clinical practice. In addition, some programs require a one-year internship, which may occupy the final year of your master’s program.Graduate students in marriage counseling often study how to:

• Administer basic therapy
• Provide a mental health diagnosis
• Support patients through talk therapy and consulting
• Handle common mental health challenges, such as anxiety, depression, marriage and couple issues and family conflict
• Help patients understand the reasons for their behavior and how it affects others
• Assist patients in exploring alternative ways of thinking to enhance their mental health

4. Meet with your graduate adviser or counselor for advice

To decide how to proceed in your education and career, consider discussing your long-term and short-term goals with your adviser. You may discuss questions like:

• Do you want to learn alternative therapy methodologies?
• Do you want to remain in school and earn a doctorate?
• Do you want to start practicing as soon as possible and pursue continuing education outside of work?
• Do you want to specialize in a particular area of psychological practice?

Answering these questions can help you discover the best next step for you, whether it’s continuing your education by taking additional specialized courses, earning a doctorate or pursuing a Marriage and Family Therapist license to start practicing in the field.

5. Consider taking courses in nontraditional methods

If you’re interested in using alternative therapy in your practice, you may need to take additional courses or obtain extra education through workshops or seminars. These methods may include:

• Hypnotherapy: This therapy involves offering straightforward directions via hypnosis.
• Guided visualization therapy: This therapy uses images as a focus for meditation.
• Art therapy: This technique uses art to uncover, express and digest challenging thoughts and feelings.

6. Contemplate getting a relevant doctorate

While most employers don’t require a doctorate to get started in marriage counseling, having one can provide opportunities for further specialization and help you stand out from other candidates and advance in your career. Aspiring marriage counselors may obtain doctorates in the following disciplines:

• Psychology
• Marriage and family therapy
• Medical family therapy
• Ministry family therapy, which focuses on religious counseling

7. Gain clinical experience as a training therapist

Aspiring marriage counselors seek for a Marriage and Family Therapist license after gaining considerable on-the-job experience. They obtain appropriate experience by working as training therapists. Training therapists often complete 2,000 to 4,000 hours of supervised clinical practice, which takes around two years. Clinical practice supervisors may provide trainee therapists with constructive criticism, advise on how to improve diagnosis, and recommendations for therapy procedures.

8. Get a marriage and family therapist license in your state

With a master’s degree and clinical experience, aspiring marriage counselors typically fulfill the requirements for obtaining a Marriage and Family Therapist (MFT) license. However, since licenses are state-specific, you may need to meet more prerequisites, especially if you move or practice in more than one state. To ensure you’re ready for licensure, you can call your state’s Board of Licensed Professional Counselors, contact former professors or talk to your target employer for more information. Once you’re fully prepared, follow these steps to earn your MFT license:

1. Schedule the exam date.
2. Pay the exam fee.
3. Provide proof that you fulfill clinical and academic requirements.
4. Pass the written exam.
5. Complete a background check.

9. Pursue continuing education to maintain your license

Marriage counselors’ continuing education requirements to retain an MFT license vary by state and job. To keep their MFT license valid, marital counselors can pursue further education, such as

• Obtaining a related doctorate
• Enrolling in continuing education courses
• Attending seminars
• Participating in workshops
• Going to conferences and professional networking events

Average salary for marriage counselors

Marriage counselors in the United States make an average yearly compensation of $67,631. Salaries in this sector vary according on geography, company, and the counselor’s level of education and experience. Marriage counselors can increase their salaries by:

• Specializing in alternative therapies
• Earning a doctorate
• Obtaining additional licenses

Marriage counselor skills

Marriage counselors gain important skills via their considerable education and clinical experience, allowing them to provide treatment that is successful, ethical, and personalized to each patient’s specific requirements. These talents frequently include:

• Communication: Many marriage counselors begin therapy through candid discussion, often driven by targeted questions. Well-established communication skills can help marriage counselors put their patients at ease, encouraging them to share emotional information and modeling healthy conversations for couples seeking to improve their communication skills.
• Compassion: Marriage counselors use empathy and open-mindedness to ensure both members of a couple feel valued and acknowledged, which can help spur conversation and reinvigorate patient relationships.
• Attention to detail: Marriage counselors engage in active listening to understand what their patients discuss and what they may be implying through word choice and gestures, which can help the counselors identify client needs.
• Interpersonal skills: One of the first steps a marriage counselor takes with their patients is building a relationship of trust and candor. By combining a friendly, professional personality with highly developed communication skills, marriage counselors can empower their patients to speak openly and work together to solve relationship challenges.
• Integrity: Patients often tell marriage counselors confidential information, which can help inform diagnoses and therapy choices. Typically, marriage counselors display integrity and trustworthiness by using this information discretely or by making ethical decisions using private information, especially during emergencies or when a patient’s life is at risk.
• Problem-solving skills: Marriage counselors investigate and diagnose their patients to develop therapeutic strategies and deliver care. Critical thinking and problem-solving skills can help marriage counselors pinpoint the source of a couple’s relationship challenges and determine the most appropriate care for each patient.

FAQs

How long does it take to become a marriage counselor?

Marriage counselors spend an extensive amount of time earning the education and training they need to qualify for clinical practice. This preparation includes:

• Four years for a bachelor’s degree
• One to three years in a master’s program
• Two years of supervised clinical practice, which master’s programs may partially cover

After at least seven years of academic and clinical experience, candidates typically meet the requirements to earn an MFT license, which most employers accept as a minimum hiring requirement for marriage counselors.

Are family and marriage therapists the same as marriage counselors?

These two fields are closely related, and both require an active MFT license to begin practice. Here’s how they differ:

• Type of patients: While marriage counselors focus on couples’ therapy, family and marriage therapists also provide therapy for complete families, including children and sometimes extended family, like grandparents or other individuals who live in one household.
• Age of patients: Family and marriage therapists are trained to provide care for all ages. In comparison, marriage counselors focus on adult therapy.
• Number of patients: Marriage counselors focus on groups of two people, typically spouses or couples, while marriage and family therapists may focus on couples or families of three or more people.
• Specialization: Marriage counselors sometimes specialize in care for different types of couples. In contrast, family and marriage therapists may take additional courses or pursue continuing education to better equip them to treat families.

What are some common marriage counselor specializations?

Some marriage counselors pursue further education to focus on specific types of couples, which can help them serve their target demographic more effectively. This may include counseling for:

• Newlyweds
• Same-sex spouses or partners
• LGBTQ families
• Couples within a specific religion