There are two ways to become a marriage and family therapist. The first is to earn a masters degree in marriage and family therapy, which takes between two and three years to complete; doctorate degrees take between three and five years. If you already have a masters degree in marriage and family therapy, a doctorate program may not take as long for you to complete. The doctoral program will give you advanced instruction in supervision, research and theory. The other way is to earn either degree in a mental health field such as psychiatry, psychology, clinical social work or psychiatric nursing.
While pursuing your education, you will be trained in helping families in such areas as mental and nervous disorders, marital and family education, sexual dysfunction, parent-child and family dynamics. You will be trained to diagnose and treat these issues and learn therapeutic techniques and processes.
In order to earn a master's degree toward become a marriage and family therapist, students will typically be enrolled in health, psychology and social work courses, such as adolescent psychology, counseling theories, group therapy, human growth and development, marriage and family systems and others. Together, these courses teach the student the relationship between physical and mental health, physical and mental health and how it impacts families, and how to assist people in crisis.
You will also be required to do an internship where you will work hands-on as a counselor. The internship generally takes up half of the last year of your studies.
The marriage and family therapy doctoral program focuses on marriage and family theory, methods of quantitative and qualitative research and requires clinical internships totaling 300 hours. General course of study include topics such as research methods, couples therapy, children and adolescent family, child development and family trauma therapy.
In addition to the required coursework, you will also be able to choose one or two electives dealing with marriage and family therapy. All of these courses, combined with internship work, should be enough to satisfy licensure requirements.
There are a number of professional organizations that licensed therapists can become members of including the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy, the Association of Marital and Family Therapy Regulatory Boards, and the American Association of Christian Counselors, which deals with faith-based counseling.
The American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy is a nationwide organization that also has statewide branches therapists can join.