Family Employment Outlook

My personal and educational experiences have influenced my desire in pursuing my degree in Marriage & Family Therapy. My last semester of college, I was interning at Care Fresno. During this time, I lived in a high crime apartment located in southeast Fresno. I was able to reach out and mentor at risk families. This experience has equipped me with skills, such as: be able to empathize, communicate, and lead other effectively. After I graduated with my Bachelor’s degree, I started working as a Drug & Alcohol Counselor at Aegis Treatment Centers. While at Aegis Treatment Centers, I realized how much I enjoy providing empathy, psycho-educating, and teaching individuals how to cope with their emotions.

Gladding, S. T. (2010). Family therapy: History, theory, and practice (5th ed.). Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson.

I would like to pursue a career in therapy, or specifically, in licensed professional counselling. I think I am a good match for such a job type because it is something that I am somewhat legitimately passionate about, as I enjoy learning about the subject matter as well as directly helping people; because of this, I have been willing to work hard in school in pursuit of it. I feel that people that have at least somewhat of a real passion for a specific field or job position have a substantial potential of being successful in it, because they therefore have the substantial potential of finding the work rewarding. Despite not having any experience in therapy and still being an undergraduate in my junior year, I have been consistently interested in the subject area throughout this education. I imagine that I will continue to be interested in the area while the job position will have the highest potential to involve my actual passion as a person. Actually working in the position, I believe I would be a model employee, working closely with the customers to help them with their problems while working to remain current with evolving best practices and findings. I would strive to be an independent worker that achieves positive outcomes and satisfied customers, and also an employee that shares information with other employees; I see myself as maintaining harmony in the organizational culture while facilitating progressive development. I believe I would continue to build on my

Family is something that plays a tremendous role in our life. Even though the structure of families has changed over the years, it is important to acknowledge that there many families out there whether they are traditional families, nuclear family, stepfamilies or others which tend to have different types of problems in their families. Therefore, many families attempt to go to family therapy in order for them to obtain help in solving the different types of issues they might have at home. As stated in the book Family Therapy by Michael P. Nichols (2013), “The power of family therapy derives from bringing parents and children together to transform their interaction… What keeps people stuck in their inability to see their own participation in the problems that plague them. With eyes fixed firmly on what recalcitrant others are doing, it’s hard for most people to see the patterns that bind them together. The family therapist’s job is to give them a wake-up call” (2013).

The Mental Health Counselors have a closed variety of values needed for the job. Being with others and creating relationships with colleagues and patients is needed for this career choice. Peers whom enjoy the feeling of finishing work, accomplishing goals set, and achieving self accomplishment. This career choice stands high for the value of self independence. Working for no one, and being your own boss is big in this career. Self employed Mental Health Counselors make their own rules, and follow their own rules (O*NET OnLine). This means that if you enjoy not being told what to do, and being in charge, then this will be a good career.

family and relationships among relatives or spouses. Marriage and family therapists usually have an office of their own, but spend a majority of their time meeting with various patients, being a socially-driven job. There is not much room for growth because the entry-level position is very similar to a seasoned therapist’s position; a counselor is expected to have all of the knowledge and skills necessary at the time of being hired.

My first assumption of family therapy was to involve the parents and the individual that had the problem. This book explored further what it

The key philosophies of the field, wellness, prevention and resilience, were discussed alongside of the main concepts important to marriage and family as well as addiction counseling. In regard to a specific hypothetical case, it was illustrated how marriage and family counselors may work in collaboration with addiction counselors in order to provide beneficial services to clients. Finally, assumptions were made concerning efficient collaboration between professionals within a team and human services agencies.

Marriage and family therapists are very much needed and are growing in demand. The stigma of seeing a therapist for marital and family problems is disappearing thus making people more likely to seek help for issues they cannot resolve on their own. There has also been an increased recognition of the field of marriage and family therapy (http://www.bls.gov). Over half of managed health care providers and employee assistance programs employ or contract with MFTs and 91% of graduates in 1992 from COAMFTE accredited programs were employed not long after graduation (http://www.aamft.org). According to the Occupational Outlook Handbook compiled by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics the field of marriage and family therapy is expected to see a growth of 30% by 2016 making it one of the fastest growing of all occupations (http://www.bls.gov).

Graduates with a Marriage and Family Therapist are trained mental health professionals who have a family-oriented perspective and treatment approach.

The family is made up of five people: Claudia, the IP; Carolyn, mother; Laura, the sister; Don, the brother; and David, the father. The family is coming into therapy because there have been mounting concerns about Claudia and her behavior—acting out, staying out late, some fairly typical teenage stuff. For the purpose of this paper, I will be starting at the beginning where the family is first coming into therapy. I will first school that I will apply is Structural Family Therapy and the second school is Bowen Family Therapy.

It takes very special people to want to make a difference in people’s lives, to want to help them to be better. Some people seek to become counselors after overcoming a most important life challenge. The individuals that seek the profession of marriage and family therapy do not think of this work as a job or career, more typically a constellation of life experiences that demand explanation and a sense that others seek one out for assistance and emotional sustenance become driving forces leading one to counseling profession (An Invitation to Counseling Work).

therapy aims to improve family relations, and the family is encouraged to become a type of

Therefore, this therapy can be used to help families with schizophrenic members, violent temperaments, uncontrolled substance or alcohol abuse, chronic problems (that affect all members), and those who want to improve relationship skills. Its goal is to build a supportive collaboration between counselor and the family and teaches skill-building techniques to help families gain control over their circumstances. Strength and resiliency are taught to families dealing with chronic problems (Goldenberg & Goldenberg, 2013, p.415). Psychoeducation does follow some of the techniques used by traditional treatments, such as cooperating with the family, acquiring the trust of its members, remaining unbiased, and figuring out the best methods to have positive conclusions. In summary, the program helps families learn problem-solving approaches that will help them have prosperous marital or parent-child relationships (Goldenberg & Goldenberg, 2013, p.416).

My desire to complete a PhD in Marriage and Family Therapy stems from my compassion to try to help and guide those who have marital issues. Also I have a passion to help families who are facing familial difficulties. I am a firm believer in the saying “all healthy family have issues”. It is okay to have problems it is how you work through the problems as a family that will determine a family dynamic. This degree will help me in my social work endeavors because my concentration was clinical with a specialization in families and children. The doctoral degree in marriage and family therapy will give me an opportunity to further my knowledge and ability to help those who are in need. After I graduate I plan on taking the licensing exam for my LMFT license. I plan on using my degrees, social work, LMFT license and experience to start my own group practice. The research question I may want to answer for my dissertation is