Video Transcript

Host Question: What is a master’s in family and marriage counseling? Who are your clients in that type of world and what types of jobs or places would you be working?

Guest Answer: It’s pretty similar to mental health in the types of positions that you’d be working, but you would focus more on families, but also couples and then children as well.

Guest Answer: That masters in family and marriage counseling degree tends to more specifically prepare a therapist to work with families and couples and marriages. You would see opportunities for that in a lot of private practice, but then also in some other organizations that are working with families as a whole. Definitely a lot of flexibility in this area as well, but you see more of a focus on private practice than kind of any other space for marriage counseling.

Guest Answer: A masters in family counseling deals with the entire family. And that unit can look like whatever it is that it looks like in your home. It could be even outside of your home. It could be the married couple and their in-laws. It could be the married couple and their children. So whatever family unit you are considering that is maybe having communication problems or if there needs to be a discussion of how past issues are showing up presently and manifesting themselves within the family. That’s the format. The family counselor also serves as a mediator. Similarly to the marriage counselor, a master’s in marriage counseling. That person is going to be working with the two individuals who are chosen, for better or for worse, to spend their lives together and really look at not just issues because it’s not always present issues. Right, but sometimes it’s preventive maintenance. So it’s how do we come together and how do we show up in our marriage and how do we learn to communicate better with each other?

Guest Answer: That is a specialty that focuses on marriage and couples counseling. And also families are usually grouped into the marriage counseling. You are eligible to get called a license in LMFT, which stands for license of marriage and family therapy. So in that program, you would have a heavy focus on couples counseling, communication, listening, and then also with family relationships.