Marriage and family counseling programs prepare people to advise married couples and families through troubled times. Students learn to assess family and marital problems. They learn about family systems. They also learn small group intervention and therapy.
An old cliché about relationships goes like this: "You hurt the ones you love the most." Usually the most important people in your life are your family members, be it your spouse, parents, or children. Because these are the people you're around the most, it's easy to get into disagreements. Sometimes, though, disagreements become so intense that you need a more objective professional to help you resolve your problems. Only then can your relationships heal. Marriage and family counselors are trained to help you do all these things.
As a marriage and family counselor, you learn how to identify marital and individual psychological problems. You also learn how to treat depression and resolve conflicts between children and parents. You help people identify the source of emotional conflicts and communicate more openly with family members. You also help people change their thoughts and behavior and prevent future crises from happening. Often you work with a psychiatrist if a patient has a severe mental illness or needs medication.
A marriage and family counselor can work in private practice, or at mental health centers, child and family service agencies, or juvenile homes. Sometimes you work with private groups and businesses to help their employees.
In marriage and family counseling programs, you take courses in therapy techniques, human psychological development, social research methods, and statistics. You learn about patterns of behavior, adolescent psychology, and human sexuality. You can also concentrate your course work on different age groups, such as children, adolescents, or adults. Depending on your interests, you can take courses about topics as varied as substance abuse problems, grief, and early childhood trauma.
You can become a marriage and family counselor by completing a two-year master's degree program after you finish your bachelor's degree. About 60 colleges and universities offer marriage and family therapy programs. Several schools offer doctoral programs in marriage and family counseling. Most people with doctoral degrees in marriage and family counseling become professors.