---
title: "Marriage and Family Therapist"
description: "Diagnose and treat mental and emotional disorders, whether cognitive, affective, or behavioral, within the context of marriage and family systems. Apply…"
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/marriage-and-family-therapist"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Marriage and Family Therapist

**Category:** Community and Social Service · **SOC code:** 21-1013 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 21-1013.00

Diagnose and treat mental and emotional disorders, whether cognitive, affective, or behavioral, within the context of marriage and family systems. Apply psychotherapeutic and family systems theories and techniques in the delivery of services to individuals, couples, and families for the purpose of treating such diagnosed nervous and mental disorders.

Also advertised as: Clinical Therapist; Couple and Family Therapist; Family Specialist; Family Therapist; LCMFT (Licensed Clinical Marriage and Family Therapist); LMFT (Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist); Marriage and Family Counselor; Multisystemic Therapist.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $66,940 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $32.18/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $44,650 to $123,730, with the middle half between $50,070 and $93,840
- **Total US employment:** 66,740
- **Typical entry education:** Master's
- **Preparation required:** Considerable preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Five: Extensive Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +13.5% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 6,900 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 33/100 — a NueCareer heuristic over O\*NET work activities and context, not a BLS or O\*NET figure

## Pay

National wage distribution, BLS OEWS, May 2025, across 66,740 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $44,650 |
| 25th | $50,070 |
| 50th (median) | $66,940 |
| 75th | $93,840 |
| 90th | $123,730 |
| Mean (average) | $76,960 |

### Pay by state

The 15 highest-paying states, by median annual wage. The cost-of-living-adjusted column divides the state median by that state's BEA Regional Price Parity, so the columns answer different questions: the first is what the job pays there, the second is what that pay buys there.

| State | Median annual wage | Cost-of-living adjusted | Employment |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| HI | $141,960 | $129,112 | 220 |
| NJ | $92,150 | $84,693 | 4,040 |
| GA | $91,550 | $95,074 | Not published by BLS |
| OR | $91,520 | $88,544 | 850 |
| CT | $86,250 | $83,245 | 260 |
| UT | $84,980 | $85,956 | 2,390 |
| VA | $79,900 | $79,028 | 930 |
| DE | $76,580 | $76,727 | 400 |
| MN | $72,470 | $73,483 | 4,870 |
| ME | $71,680 | $73,859 | 180 |
| NM | $70,630 | $76,595 | 160 |
| OH | $70,240 | $75,711 | 460 |
| MD | $69,900 | $66,597 | 460 |
| KS | $68,710 | $76,287 | 190 |
| MA | $67,370 | $63,703 | 600 |

30 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 45 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/marriage-and-family-therapist/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/marriage-and-family-therapist.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 76,300 in the 2025–2035 base year to 86,600 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 10,300 jobs, or +13.5%. Much faster than average: 13.5% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 6,900 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2025–2035.

## How to get in

- **Typical entry education:** Master's degree (BLS Employment Projections).
- **Preparation level:** Considerable preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone Five: Extensive Preparation Needed".
- **Related work experience typically required:** None.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** Internship/residency.

## What the work involves

- Ask questions that will help clients identify their feelings and behaviors.
- Encourage individuals and family members to develop and use skills and strategies for confronting their problems in a constructive manner.
- Develop and implement individualized treatment plans addressing family relationship problems, destructive patterns of behavior, and other personal issues.
- Counsel clients on concerns, such as unsatisfactory relationships, divorce and separation, child rearing, home management, or financial difficulties.
- Confer with clients to develop plans for posttreatment activities.
- Collect information about clients, using techniques such as testing, interviewing, discussion, or observation.
- Maintain case files that include activities, progress notes, evaluations, and recommendations.
- Determine whether clients should be counseled or referred to other specialists in such fields as medicine, psychiatry, or legal aid.

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Active Listening — importance 4.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Critical Thinking — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Learning — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Learning Strategies — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Transferable skills

These are the skills that carry into other occupations, and they drive the related-occupation and career-change rankings on this site.

- Social Perceptiveness — importance 4.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Service Orientation — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Coordination — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Persuasion — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Negotiation — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Instructing — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Therapy and Counseling — importance 4.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Psychology — importance 4.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Sociology and Anthropology — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Customer and Personal Service — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Education and Training — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Oral Comprehension — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Expression — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Problem Sensitivity — importance 4.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Expression — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Deductive Reasoning — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

## Who it suits

O\*NET rates every occupation on the six Holland (RIASEC) interest areas, on a 1–7 scale. This occupation's strongest areas are Social (S), Investigative (I), Artistic (A).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| S — Social | 6.22 |
| I — Investigative | 5.32 |
| A — Artistic | 3.58 |
| C — Conventional | 2.90 |
| E — Enterprising | 1.78 |
| R — Realistic | 1.49 |

### Personality fit

These scores are **derived by NueCareer**, not published by any government agency: they are cosine similarities between a personality type's trait profile and this occupation's O\*NET interest and work-style ratings, expressed 0–100. Treat them as a starting point for exploration, not as evidence that a type belongs in a job.

| Type | Fit score (0–100) |
| --- | --- |
| INFJ | 72.4 |
| INFP | 70.1 |
| ENFP | 66.9 |
| ENFJ | 64.8 |
| ISFP | 59.2 |

Best-fitting types: INFJ, INFP.

## Related occupations

O\*NET's primary related occupations, in its own ranked order.

- [Mental Health and Substance Abuse Social Worker](https://nuecareer.com/careers/mental-health-and-substance-abuse-social-worker) — median $60,280
- [Mental Health Counselor](https://nuecareer.com/careers/mental-health-counselor) — median $60,320
- [School Social Worker](https://nuecareer.com/careers/school-social-worker) — median $59,550
- [Clinical Psychologist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/clinical-psychologist) — median $100,580
- [Healthcare Social Worker](https://nuecareer.com/careers/healthcare-social-worker) — median $67,880
- [Rehabilitation Counselor](https://nuecareer.com/careers/rehabilitation-counselor) — median $46,850
- [Social and Human Service Assistant](https://nuecareer.com/careers/social-and-human-service-assistant) — median $45,930
- [Substance Abuse and Behavioral Disorder Counselor](https://nuecareer.com/careers/substance-abuse-and-behavioral-disorder-counselor) — median $60,320
- [Recreational Therapist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/recreational-therapist) — median $61,960
- [School Psychologist](https://nuecareer.com/careers/school-psychologist) — median $95,990

## Sources

- **O\*NET** — O\*NET 31.0 Database, August 2026. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html
- **BLS OEWS** — BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. https://www.bls.gov/oes/
- **BLS EP** — BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2, 2025–2035. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **BLS OOH** — BLS Occupational Outlook Handbook, 2025–2035 edition. https://www.bls.gov/ooh/
- **BEA RPP** — BEA Regional Price Parities by State, 2024. https://www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/regional-price-parities-state-and-metro-area

---

This bank includes information from the O\*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. NueCareer has transformed the data by joining it to BLS wage and projection data and deriving facet, personality-fit and AI-resilience scores. BLS and BEA data are public domain (17 U.S.C. §105).

O\*NET content is used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). How these figures are sourced and derived: https://nuecareer.com/careers/methodology

JSON representation of this page: https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/marriage-and-family-therapist