The Career Of Family And Marriage Therapist

The purpose of this paper is to review my professional identity as a Marriage and Family Therapist and to reflect on my developing beliefs within my selection of the counseling profession. My professional identity is beginning to be developed throughout my education with Liberty University. I will address the Marriage and Family Therapist professional counselor role and how this position differs from social workers, clinical psychologists, and professional counselors. By reviewing the differences in counseling positions, I will be able to express the differences from my previous experiences with pastoral counseling, and outline what my

These degrees will emphasize the practical applications of family therapy principles to diagnose and treat problems in human relationships. These degree programs will use intensive course work, clinical experience with clients and supervision by mentors.

Family Therapy can be implemented in a different ways in a program that provides a facet of services, but it’s imperative that the approaches used are appropriate for the individual or families utilizing services. Functional Family Therapy is used to help deal with substance abuse in families but can also be used to assist with behavioral issues in children. A well rounded family service program can not only use this one approach but utilize other approaches to meet the needs of the population being served. And while implementing the service ethics will play a major role in the therapy being providing.

Becoming a Licensed Family Therapist/Marriage Counselor is a career goal. Currently, I am studying to earn a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology, however, after accomplishing the bachelor’s degree, I will continue on to get a master’s degree. Focusing on my studies is a priority over full-time employment, meanwhile,

2. Interests/Skills: According to O*NET, the Holland code for marriage and family therapists are most interested in the Social, Artistic, and Investigative. “Active listening, social perceptiveness, service oriented work-ethic, speaking and judgement and decision making” are all things skills needed for this career as stated by O*NET. Some major abilities needed for marriage and family therapy are “oral comprehension and expression, problem sensitivity, speech clarity and deductive reasoning” (O*NET).

I wanted to join the class because I am considering being a marriage and family therapist in the future. I definitely learned a lot from this class about the models and theories. I found structural family therapy the most interesting out of all the therapies. I also thought structural family therapy would be very beneficial in my job as a child protective service worker. Having an understanding of the family, their structure, and what problems there maybe is great for this job. Of course, most of my structural mapping is doing to deal with substance abuse in a subsystem. I am also a visual and hands on learner, and being able to see something physically works best for me.

Family therapy is a form of psychotherapy employed to assist members of a family in improving communication systems, conflict resolution, and to help the family to deal with certain problems that manifest in the behavior of members. In most cases, deviance in a family member is an indication of underlying family dysfunctions. This paper looks the counselling procedure that can be applied to help the Kline family solve their problems. It answers certain questions including those of the expected challenges during therapy and ways of dealing with the challenges.

Marriage and family therapists believe that the family patterns may affect an individual’s psychological and physical well being and therefore need to be part of therapy. During a therapy session even if only one person is being interviewed, the therapists focuses on a set of relationships that the person is embedded in. The entire family is involved in solving clients problems regardless of whether the issue in individual or family.

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).

Marriage and Family Therapy is a particularly interesting area of Psychological study. This field offers adults and children resources to help cope with potentially damaging psychological issues within the family unit. Marriage and Family therapist offer an opportunity for spouse to reconcile their differences, while helping children understand the family hardships and issues. Marriage and Family therapist help couples, families and groups that deal with issues that have affected their mental health. This is to help redeem such problems as alcohol and drug abuse or marital stress. Treatment for marital stress normally last over duration of time of 12-50 weeks and combines individual and couples counseling. Most Marriage and family therapists need a license in their state of residents. This profession does typically require a master’s degree in a field related to marriage and family therapy. According to ONET MFT requires a therapist t

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).

It is imperative for a therapist to be  multiculturally sensitive. Our multicultural faucets can provide clarity and insight to both sides of the therapist and client (Kissil, Niño, & Davey, 2013).  What a therapist can take from multicultural clients is a learning experience that they both can benefit from.  Having said this, it is virtually impossible for a therapist to be an expert on every culture (Richeport-Haley, 1998). Richeport-Haley (1998), made an excellent point that, is a client’s culture or belief the focus or is it the situation that brought them into therapy?

While I am currently enrolled as a Marriage and Family Therapy student, my plan is to switch degrees and pursue a master’s degree in psychology instead. Because I am planning on moving back to my home country of Germany in the near future, and since counseling is not recognized as an independent field there, I will try to compare the role of a German psychologist with a certification in systemic family therapy to the role of a MFT in

The purpose of this paper is to prepare an annotated bibliography on family therapy with emphasis on ethnicity and sociocultural influences on the problems of communication. This research includes twelve resources on authors with the following annotations: Delineation of the main focus or purpose of each author 's work; Background and credibility of each author; Intended audience for the work; Any unique feature of the work; Theoretical understandings; Family therapy strategies or techniques; and a Conclusion or observations presented in the work.

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