Marriage And Family Therapist job description: duties, skills and qualifications.

Core duties

16

O*NET task statements

Preparation

Job Zone 5 of 5

extensive preparation

Typical entry education

Master's degree

BLS 2025–35

Median pay

$66,940

BLS May 2025

1. Ask questions that will help clients identify their feelings and behaviors. importance 4.8 of 5
2. Encourage individuals and family members to develop and use skills and strategies for confronting their problems in a constructive manner. importance 4.8 of 5
3. Develop and implement individualized treatment plans addressing family relationship problems, destructive patterns of behavior, and other personal issues. importance 4.8 of 5
4. Maintain case files that include activities, progress notes, evaluations, and recommendations. importance 4.8 of 5
5. Counsel clients on concerns, such as unsatisfactory relationships, divorce and separation, child rearing, home management, or financial difficulties. importance 4.7 of 5
6. Determine whether clients should be counseled or referred to other specialists in such fields as medicine, psychiatry, or legal aid. importance 4.5 of 5
7. Supervise other counselors, social service staff, and assistants. importance 4.4 of 5
8. Confer with other counselors, doctors, and professionals to analyze individual cases and to coordinate counseling services. importance 4.2 of 5
9. Diagnose mental and emotional disorders in clients. importance 4.2 of 5
10. Confer with clients to develop plans for posttreatment activities. importance 4.1 of 5
11. Collect information about clients, using techniques such as testing, interviewing, discussion, or observation. importance 4.1 of 5
12. Provide family counseling and treatment services to inmates participating in substance abuse programs. importance 3.6 of 5
13. Provide public education and consultation to other professionals or groups regarding counseling services, issues, and methods. importance 3.5 of 5
14. Follow up on results of counseling programs and clients' adjustments to determine effectiveness of programs. importance 3.5 of 5
15. Write evaluations of parents and children for use by courts deciding divorce and custody cases, testifying in court if necessary. importance 3.5 of 5
16. Provide instructions to clients on how to obtain help with legal, financial, and other personal issues. importance 3.3 of 5

Work activities O*NET rates most important here: Establishing and Maintaining Interpersonal Relationships, Getting Information, Making Decisions and Solving Problems, Documenting/Recording Information and Updating and Using Relevant Knowledge.

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

Software O*NET lists for this occupation: Zoom, Google Meet, Intuit QuickBooks, Microsoft Access, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Office software. These are examples O*NET records for the job, not a list of tools every employer uses or a checklist of what you must know.

• Education: BLS lists a master's degree as the typical entry-level education.
• Experience: BLS lists no work experience in a related occupation as typical to enter.
• Training on the job: BLS lists internship/residency as typical once hired.
• Preparation: O*NET places the job in Job Zone 5 of 5 (extensive preparation). Extensive skill, knowledge, and experience are needed for these occupations.
• Licenses and certifications: not listed here. A license is a legal requirement set by a state; a certification is a credential from a private or professional body. Rules vary by state and employer, and a missing entry on this page does not mean none is required: check with your state's licensing board and see how to become a marriage and family therapist.

Most O*NET's occupation experts for this occupation (87%) name a master's degree as the education the job requires.

Job title: Marriage And Family Therapist
[Company] · [City, State] · [Full-time or part-time] · [Pay range, where your state requires one]

About the role
[Company] is hiring a Marriage And Family Therapist to diagnose and treat mental and emotional disorders, whether cognitive, affective, or behavioral, within the context of marriage and family systems.
[One sentence on your team and why this role matters.]

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

What we are looking for
- [Education: BLS lists a master's degree as typical for this occupation; set the level this role truly needs]
- [Experience: BLS lists no related work experience as typical to enter; set what this role needs]
- Strength in active listening, social perceptiveness and speaking
- Working knowledge of Therapy and Counseling and Psychology
- [Software your team uses, e.g. Zoom or Google Meet]
- [Any license or certification your state or company requires]

[Schedule, benefits and how to apply]

Illustrative: every name, employer, school, date and number in these samples is fictional or a bracketed placeholder. Replace each bracket with your own true details; never copy a result you did not achieve.

Not a real job posting. This template is TryHired's illustration built from government occupational data. It is not an opening at any employer, and no employer wrote it.

The median annual wage was $66,940 in May 2025. The median hourly wage was $32.18. BLS estimates about 66,740 jobs in this occupation in the U.S.

BLS projects employment of marriage and family therapists to grow 13.5% from 2025 to 2035, with about 6,900 openings a year over that period, including openings to replace workers who leave.

See the full marriage and family therapist salary breakdown by percentile, state and metro.

• Read a real marriage and family therapist posting next to the core duties above. Duties it repeats, such as “Ask questions that will help clients identify their feelings and…”, tell you what that employer weighs most; anything it adds is specific to that team.
• Tailor your resume to the posting, not to this page: describe only marriage and family therapist work you have actually done, with your own results.
• Prepare a story for each of the top-rated skills (active listening and social perceptiveness).