Marriage and Family Therapist job description
1,026 verified openings in Behavioral & Mental Health
Diagnosis comes with the job. O*NET defines the occupation as diagnosing and treating mental and emotional disorders, cognitive, affective, or behavioral, within the context of marriage and family systems, and applying family systems technique to individuals, couples, and families. It is licensed work, and LMFT is the credential. BLS counted 66,740 jobs in May 2025 at a median of $66,940, with a tenth percentile of $44,650 and a ninetieth of $123,730.
Core Duties and Responsibilities
The two things that matter most are both about getting the client to do the work: encouraging family members to build and use strategies for confronting problems constructively, and asking the questions that help someone name what they are feeling and doing. From there, treatment plans get written for relationship problems and destructive patterns of behavior, case files get kept with progress notes and recommendations, and sessions cover unsatisfactory relationships, divorce and separation, child rearing, home management, and money. Therapists judge when a case belongs with a physician, a psychiatrist, or legal aid, and some write custody and visitation evaluations for courts and testify to them.
Common Skills and Technologies
Active listening rates 4.88 out of 5, near the ceiling of O*NET's scale, with social perceptiveness and speaking behind it. Judgment and complex problem solving come next, which is the diagnostic side of the job. One entry on the tool list stands out: alongside Microsoft Office, Zoom, and Microsoft Teams, O*NET names Intuit QuickBooks, an accounting package.
Education, Training, and Career Path
Roughly 79 percent of respondents hold a master's degree, and most of the rest hold something longer, a doctorate or one of the six-year professional degrees, so the master's is the working standard. Job Zone Five applies: graduate school assumed, extensive preparation, and little on-the-job training, since the credential is expected to have covered it. The licensed titles people report are LMFT and, in some cases, LPC, and the roles they name include clinical therapist, family therapist, outpatient therapist, and play therapist.
Sources: O*NET 30.0, 21-1013.00 Marriage and Family Therapists, https://www.onetonline.org/link/summary/21-1013.00. BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025, 21-1013, https://www.bls.gov/oes/current/oes211013.htm.