What does a Marriage and Family Therapist do?

Diagnose and treat mental and emotional disorders, whether cognitive, affective, or behavioral, within the context of marriage and family systems. Day to day that includes work like encourage individuals and family members to develop and use skills and strategies for confronting their problems in a constructive manner and Ask questions that will help clients identify their feelings and behaviors.

What skills should a Marriage and Family Therapist put on a resume?

O*NET rates Active Listening, Social Perceptiveness, Speaking, Complex Problem Solving, and Judgment and Decision Making among the most important skills for this occupation. Name the ones that are genuinely yours and show where you used them. A resume that lists skills you do not have is weaker than one that lists fewer.

What software should a Marriage and Family Therapist list?

Software recorded for this occupation includes Advantage Software Psych Advantage, American Medical Billing Software PMA, Anasazi Software Client Data System, Beaver Creek Software The THERAPIST, and Blueberry Harbor Software Clinical Record Keeper. Applicant tracking systems match on the exact product name, so write the tool as the posting writes it rather than describing it in general terms.

What other job titles cover Marriage and Family Therapist work?

O*NET records 37 titles for this occupation, including Clinical Therapist, Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, LMFT, and MFT. Searching only your own job title hides most of the openings you could apply to.

What qualifications does a Marriage and Family Therapist need?

In O*NET's survey of people doing this job, 79% reported their level of education as "Master's Degree". That is what current postholders reported, not a requirement any single employer sets.

Will this resume pass an ATS for a Marriage and Family Therapist role?

No tool outside an employer can tell you how that employer's system is configured, including ours. What you can control is that the resume parses cleanly, names the work in the words the posting uses, and does not claim anything you cannot back up.

Marriage and Family Therapist resume example

A resume for a Marriage and Family Therapist needs to show the work itself: diagnose and treat mental and emotional disorders, whether cognitive, affective, or behavioral, within the context of marriage and family systems. Day to day that means work like this: encourage individuals and family members to develop and use skills and strategies for confronting their problems in a constructive manner; ask questions that will help clients identify their feelings and behaviors. Recruiters and applicant tracking systems both read for the tasks and tools this role actually involves, so the strongest resume names them in your own experience rather than describing the job in the abstract. Below are the tasks O*NET records for this occupation, the software and tools it uses, the titles it is advertised under, and the skills worth naming if they are genuinely yours.

Also advertised as

The same job is posted under many titles. Searching only your own job title hides most of the openings you could apply to.

Clinical Therapist
Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist
LMFT
MFT
Outpatient Therapist
Counselor
Family Therapist
Human Relations Counselor
Licensed Professional Counselor
LPC
Marriage and Family Counselor
Play Therapist
ABA Behavior Therapist
Behavior Tech
Behavior Intervention Specialist
Behavior Specialist
Behavior Support Specialist
Behavior Technician

O*NET records 37 titles for this occupation in total.

What people in this job call themselves

Titles reported by people actually doing this work, which is often not the title on the job posting.

Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT)
Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC)
Marriage and Family Therapist (MFT)

What this work actually involves

Tasks recorded for this occupation, in O*NET's words. If your experience covers one of these, it belongs on your resume in your own words.

Encourage individuals and family members to develop and use skills and strategies for confronting their problems in a constructive manner.
Ask questions that will help clients identify their feelings and behaviors.
Develop and implement individualized treatment plans addressing family relationship problems, destructive patterns of behavior, and other personal issues.
Maintain case files that include activities, progress notes, evaluations, and recommendations.
Counsel clients on concerns, such as unsatisfactory relationships, divorce and separation, child rearing, home management, or financial difficulties.
Collect information about clients, using techniques such as testing, interviewing, discussion, or observation.
Confer with clients to develop plans for posttreatment activities.
Confer with other counselors, doctors, and professionals to analyze individual cases and to coordinate counseling services.
Determine whether clients should be counseled or referred to other specialists in such fields as medicine, psychiatry, or legal aid.
Provide instructions to clients on how to obtain help with legal, financial, and other personal issues.
Provide public education and consultation to other professionals or groups regarding counseling services, issues, and methods.
Follow up on results of counseling programs and clients' adjustments to determine effectiveness of programs.

15 tasks are recorded in total; these are the most central.

Example bullets for this role

Built from this occupation's own tasks. The brackets stay empty on purpose: we will not invent a number for you, and a fabricated metric is the fastest way to lose an interview you had already won.

Encourage individuals and family members to develop and use skills and strategies for confronting their problems in a constructive manner, for [who or what it served], at [what volume].
Ask questions that will help clients identify their feelings and behaviors, for [who or what it served], at [what volume].
Develop and implement individualized treatment plans addressing family relationship problems, destructive patterns of behavior, and other personal issues, for [who or what it served], at [what volume].
Maintain case files that include activities, progress notes, evaluations, and recommendations, for [who or what it served], at [what volume].

Software used in this role

Recorded for this occupation by O*NET. An applicant tracking system matches the exact product name, so write the tool the way the posting writes it.

Advantage Software Psych Advantage
American Medical Billing Software PMA
Anasazi Software Client Data System
Beaver Creek Software The THERAPIST
Blueberry Harbor Software Clinical Record Keeper
Care Paths eRecord
Casamba Smart
Cornucopia Software Practice MAGIC
DocuTrac QuicDoc
eMDs Medisoft
EZ2Bill Confidant
EZClaim medical billing software
Google Meet
Hypertext preprocessor PHP

32 software entries are recorded in total.

Tools and equipment

The physical equipment this occupation is recorded as using. Worth naming when a posting asks for it by name.

Computer laser printers
Desktop computers
Doll houses
Dolls
Hand puppets
Laptop computers
Multi-line telephone systems
Personal computers
Personal digital assistants PDA
Photocopying equipment
Toy block sets
Videoconferencing equipment

Skills an ATS reads for

Worth naming only if they are genuinely yours. Keyword overlap is one input to a resume's score, not a verdict.

Google Meet
Microsoft Teams
Zoom

What this job rates as most important

O*NET rates every skill for importance to this occupation. These are the highest rated, in order.

01Active Listening
02Social Perceptiveness
03Speaking
04Complex Problem Solving
05Judgment and Decision Making
06Reading Comprehension
07Service Orientation
08Writing
09Critical Thinking
10Active Learning

Knowledge areas

The subject knowledge this occupation draws on, rated by importance.

Therapy and Counseling
Psychology
Customer and Personal Service
Sociology and Anthropology
English Language
Administrative
Law and Government
Philosophy and Theology

What qualifications people in this job have

From O*NET's survey of people doing this work. This is what postholders reported, not a requirement any single employer sets.

79%Master's Degree
10%First Professional Degree, awarded for completion of a program that: requires at least 2 years of college work before entrance into the program, includes a total of at least 6 academic years of work to complete, and provides all remaining academic requirements to begin practice in a profession.
5%Doctoral Degree

What level this role is pitched at

O*NET places this occupation in “Extensive Preparation Needed”. Most of these occupations require graduate school. For example, they may require a master's degree, and some require a Ph.D., M.D., or J.D. (law degree).

Extensive skill, knowledge, and experience are needed for these occupations. Many require more than five years of experience. For example, surgeons must complete four years of college and an additional five to seven years of specialized medical training to be able to do their job.

Common questions

What does a Marriage and Family Therapist do?: Diagnose and treat mental and emotional disorders, whether cognitive, affective, or behavioral, within the context of marriage and family systems. Day to day that includes work like encourage individuals and family members to develop and use skills and strategies for confronting their problems in a constructive manner and Ask questions that will help clients identify their feelings and behaviors.
What skills should a Marriage and Family Therapist put on a resume?: O*NET rates Active Listening, Social Perceptiveness, Speaking, Complex Problem Solving, and Judgment and Decision Making among the most important skills for this occupation. Name the ones that are genuinely yours and show where you used them. A resume that lists skills you do not have is weaker than one that lists fewer.
What software should a Marriage and Family Therapist list?: Software recorded for this occupation includes Advantage Software Psych Advantage, American Medical Billing Software PMA, Anasazi Software Client Data System, Beaver Creek Software The THERAPIST, and Blueberry Harbor Software Clinical Record Keeper. Applicant tracking systems match on the exact product name, so write the tool as the posting writes it rather than describing it in general terms.
What other job titles cover Marriage and Family Therapist work?: O*NET records 37 titles for this occupation, including Clinical Therapist, Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, LMFT, and MFT. Searching only your own job title hides most of the openings you could apply to.
What qualifications does a Marriage and Family Therapist need?: In O*NET's survey of people doing this job, 79% reported their level of education as "Master's Degree". That is what current postholders reported, not a requirement any single employer sets.
Will this resume pass an ATS for a Marriage and Family Therapist role?: No tool outside an employer can tell you how that employer's system is configured, including ours. What you can control is that the resume parses cleanly, names the work in the words the posting uses, and does not claim anything you cannot back up.

Related roles

Occupations O*NET records as closest to this one, and worth looking at if this search is not moving.

What this page cannot tell you

No tool outside an employer can tell you how that employer’s ATS is configured, including ours.
This page makes no claim about pay, demand or how many people hold this job. O*NET does not publish that here and we will not estimate it.
Keyword overlap is one input to a resume’s score, not a verdict on you. A resume that names skills you do not have is worse than one that names fewer.

If this is the job you are aiming at, the guide to tailoring a resume covers how to aim one posting properly, and building and exporting a resume here is free.

Occupation data from the O*NET 29.1 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA), used under CC BY 4.0. O*NET is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. SpartanResume is not endorsed by USDOL/ETA.