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Role hub · Marriage and Family Therapists

Marriage And Family Therapist: what the job is, what it pays, and how to get hired.

The work, the skills that matter, the tools in demand and the pay range, from U.S. government data, plus every TryHired page for the role.

Maid DizdarevicCareer coach · 8x LinkedIn Top Voice
Updated Nov 2, 2026 · Data: BLS OEWS May 2025 · O*NET 31.0
Pay ladder · select a percentile
Median percentile pay

Half of marriage and family therapists earn more than this and half earn less.

Annual
$66,940
Hourly
$32.18
Source
BLS May 2025
Quick answer

Marriage And Family Therapists diagnose and treat mental and emotional disorders, whether cognitive, affective, or behavioral, within the context of marriage and family systems. The median pay is $66,940 a year ($32.18 an hour) (BLS, May 2025).

Median pay
$66,940
BLS May 2025
Employed in the U.S.
66,740
BLS May 2025
Preparation
Job Zone 5 of 5
extensive preparation
Key facts

Marriage And Family Therapists at a glance

  • Marriage and family therapists in the United States earned a median annual wage of $66,940 in May 2025, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

    Source: BLS OEWS, May 2025

  • In its 2025–35 employment projections, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics lists a master's degree as the typical entry-level education for marriage and family therapists in the United States.

    Source: BLS Employment Projections, 2025–35

  • BLS projects employment of marriage and family therapists in the United States to grow 13.5% from 2025 to 2035, with about 6,900 openings a year on average, including replacement openings.

    Source: BLS Employment Projections, 2025–35

  • BLS estimated that 66,740 people were employed as marriage and family therapists in the United States in May 2025, not counting the self-employed.

    Source: BLS OEWS, May 2025

Explore the role

Every page for Marriage And Family Therapists

SalaryMarriage And Family Therapist salary

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The work

What marriage and family therapists do day to day

Data Core tasks rated most important by workers in the role (O*NET).

  1. Ask questions that will help clients identify their feelings and behaviors.
  2. Encourage individuals and family members to develop and use skills and strategies for confronting their problems in a constructive manner.
  3. Develop and implement individualized treatment plans addressing family relationship problems, destructive patterns of behavior, and other personal issues.
  4. Maintain case files that include activities, progress notes, evaluations, and recommendations.
  5. Counsel clients on concerns, such as unsatisfactory relationships, divorce and separation, child rearing, home management, or financial difficulties.
  6. Determine whether clients should be counseled or referred to other specialists in such fields as medicine, psychiatry, or legal aid.
  7. Supervise other counselors, social service staff, and assistants.
  8. Confer with other counselors, doctors, and professionals to analyze individual cases and to coordinate counseling services.
Where this career works

Industries that employ it

Data Share of all marriage and family therapist jobs in each industry, 2025 (BLS Employment Matrix).

  1. Ambulatory healthcare services49.1% of all jobs in this occupation · +16.6% projected change here 2025–35 · mean wage $78,430
  2. Social assistance23.8% of all jobs in this occupation · +8.3% projected change here 2025–35 · mean wage $71,210
  3. Government, excluding state and local education and hospitals6.8% of all jobs in this occupation · +2.2% projected change here 2025–35 · mean wage $88,670
  4. Nursing and residential care facilities4.1% of all jobs in this occupation · +7.7% projected change here 2025–35 · mean wage $73,410
  5. Hospitals; state, local, and private1.9% of all jobs in this occupation · +4.7% projected change here 2025–35 · mean wage $82,740
  6. Educational services; state, local, and private1.8% of all jobs in this occupation · +3.8% projected change here 2025–35 · mean wage $71,430

Sources: BLS 2025–35 National Employment Matrix (share of the occupation's jobs, projected change) and BLS OEWS May 2025 industry estimates (mean wage). Different industry estimates are not a pay forecast for any person.

Skills that matter

Ranked by importance to the job

Data O*NET importance ratings. The first three are core.

Active ListeningcoreSocial PerceptivenesscoreSpeakingcoreService OrientationComplex Problem SolvingJudgment and Decision MakingReading ComprehensionWritingCritical Thinking

Knowledge areas: Therapy and Counseling, Psychology, Sociology and Anthropology, Customer and Personal Service, English Language, Education and Training.

Tools and technology

Software marriage and family therapists use

Data Examples reported for the role; employer demand flags from O*NET.

  • Advantage Software Psych AdvantageMedical software
  • American Medical Billing Software PMABilling and invoicing software
  • Anasazi Software Client Data SystemMedical software
  • Beaver Creek Software The THERAPISTMedical software
  • Blueberry Harbor Software Clinical Record KeeperMedical software
  • Care Paths eRecordMedical software
  • Casamba SmartMedical software
  • Cornucopia Software Practice MAGICMedical software
  • DocuTrac QuicDocMedical software
  • EZ2Bill ConfidantBilling and invoicing software
  • EZClaim medical billing softwareBilling and invoicing software
  • Mdansby The PsychReportMedical software

Also called: Clinical Therapist, Couple and Family Therapist, Family Specialist, Family Therapist, LCMFT (Licensed Clinical Marriage and Family Therapist), LMFT (Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist).

Method

How this page is built

Tasks, skills, tools, education and related roles come from O*NET 31.0. Pay and employment come from the BLS OEWS May 2025 national estimates. The skill-match score is our calculation: Skill match is the cosine similarity of the two occupations' skill profiles: for each of 35 O*NET skills (10 essential, 25 transferable) we multiply importance by level and subtract the average across all occupations, then compare the direction of the two profiles. 100 means identical shape; 0 means unrelated or opposite (negative values are shown as 0). Only occupations that O*NET itself lists as related are compared.

What this page can't tell you
  • How a specific employer defines the job.
  • Pay for self-employed workers (OEWS covers employees).
  • Your own chances: data describes the occupation, not you.
Sources
  1. O*NET 31.0 Database, U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA), used under the CC BY 4.0 license. TryHired selected, ranked and combined the data; O*NET is not responsible for these pages.
  2. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 estimates (public domain).

How TryHired builds this data: sources, methods and downloads. Spotted an error? Report a correction.