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Family Therapy Providers Job Overview

Family therapy providers help families and couples solve emotional problems and try to prevent families and individuals from getting into a crisis situation. They address problems like troubled marriages and divorce, bulimia, depression, financial and emotional issues and grief. They usually deal with sensitive and emotionally stressful situations.

Family Therapy Providers Schools and Degrees

Those who wish to become a family therapy provider should earn a master’s degree program, which prepares students in wide areas of practice and theory related to family therapy. A person who desires to become a family therapy provider should also earn a graduate degree in subjects as psychiatry, clinical social work and psychology and then specialize in family therapy by completing a post graduate degree program on clinical training.

Job Requirements

Those who earn a graduate degree and then wish to become a family therapist need to have supervised clinical experience in order to qualify for certification or licensure. Apart from a degree, most states require family therapists to have advanced training and to have worked under the guidance of an expert. They need to have had training in diagnosis and management of psychological disorders in areas such as marital relations, behavioral patterns and family relationships.

Many family therapy providers can become members of The American Association of Marriage and Therapy. To become a member, the family therapy provider is required to attain some pre-defined eligibility criteria.

Family therapists need to be trained in a number of curative methods and techniques. They need to be patient listeners and be empathetic. Simultaneously, they must be careful not to get too emotionally attached with the personal problems of their patients. They need to have excellent communication and interpersonal skills and must be observant and analytical by nature.

Nature of Work

Family therapy providers address family problems and help solve those problems. When necessary, they refer their clients to the right psychiatric resources, use psychotherapy and educate them on interpersonal relations. Family therapy providers make use of the family perspective to realize individual and group issues. They understand the problem and try and find solutions for it.

Family therapy providers can work in many different places like in schools, prisons, courts, medical facilities and in employee aid programs. They need to adapt themselves according to the places where they work.

Family Therapy Providers Jobs and Outlook

Growth in this profession is expected to be thirty percent larger than other professions over the next ten years.

The average annual earnings of a family therapy provider was around $36,000 in 2006.

Job Numbers and Growth

About 25,000 family therapy providers can be found working in the US. A low unemployment level has been the case recently. Employees without jobs were about 3%.

Area Job Conditions

Finding family therapy providers is easiest in Ocean City (New Jersey), Camden (New Jersey), and Santa Rosa (California), and by comparison more challenging in Kansas City (Missouri), Denver (Colorado), and Chicago (Illinois).

The pay is best in Honolulu (Hawaii), Durham (North Carolina), and Bridgeport (Connecticut) and worst in Tampa (Florida), Jacksonville (Florida), and Nashville (Tennessee).

Training and Education

You'll generally want a master's degree for this career path. Of current family therapy providers, 73% graduated from college with degrees. Some 18% of workers attened college but did not go on to get a bachelor's degree. A high school education was sufficient for 9% of employees. Recommended schools are shown in the column to the right; request information from them to help you decide which if any could help you with this career.

Part-Time Work and Self-Employment

Family therapy providers working part-time accounted for 15% of those employed in 2008. Self-employed workers represent an estimated 6% of the total.

Family Therapy Providers by Metropolitan Area (city and its surroundings)

In the table below, a Job Density near 0% means the area has an average number of people in this occupation, for its population. A higher or lower Job Density (e.g., +22% or -45%) tells you there are that many more or fewer workers of that type there than in the average US metro area. So, the higher the number, the more common the occupation.

Alabama

City and Area	Median Salary	Employees	Job Density
Birmingham	$46,000	60	-31%

Alaska

City and Area	Median Salary	Employees	Job Density
Anchorage	$71,000	50	+76%

Arizona

City and Area	Median Salary	Employees	Job Density
Phoenix	$46,000	50	-84%

California

City and Area	Median Salary	Employees	Job Density
Bakersfield	$64,000	90	+100%
Los Angeles	$50,000	1,900	+164%
Oakland	$55,000	610	+245%
Oxnard	$52,000	160	+210%
Redding	$50,000	50	+430%
Riverside	$53,000	310	+45%
Salinas	$54,000	130	+380%
San Diego	$57,000	510	+120%
San Francisco	$53,000	450	+156%
Santa Ana	$50,000	610	+136%
Santa Barbara	$52,000	140	+392%
Santa Rosa	$56,000	100	+238%
Vallejo	$59,000	40	+101%

Colorado

City and Area	Median Salary	Employees	Job Density
Boulder	$43,000	30	+16%
Denver	$33,000	120	-46%

Connecticut

City and Area	Median Salary	Employees	Job Density
Hartford	$48,000	110	+9%
New Haven	$57,000	30	-36%
Norwich	$55,000	40	+96%

Delaware

City and Area	Median Salary	Employees	Job Density
Wilmington	$55,000	190	+235%

District of Columbia

City and Area	Median Salary	Employees	Job Density
Washington	$55,000	390	-10%

Florida

City and Area	Median Salary	Employees	Job Density
Cape Coral	$45,000	40	+21%
Fort Lauderdale	$40,000	430	+249%
Jacksonville	$39,000	140	+32%
Miami	$44,000	340	+96%
Tampa	$36,000	320	+58%
West Palm Beach	$43,000	120	+32%

Georgia

City and Area	Median Salary	Employees	Job Density
Atlanta	$51,000	160	-61%

Hawaii

City and Area	Median Salary	Employees	Job Density
Honolulu	$77,000	40	-48%

Illinois

City and Area	Median Salary	Employees	Job Density
Chicago	$40,000	50	-93%

Indiana

City and Area	Median Salary	Employees	Job Density
Bloomington	$36,000	50	+349%
Evansville		40	+37%
Indianapolis	$67,000	140	-12%
South Bend	$46,000	60	+178%
Terre Haute	$39,000	60	+452%

Iowa

City and Area	Median Salary	Employees	Job Density
Des Moines	$45,000	80	+39%

Kentucky

City and Area	Median Salary	Employees	Job Density
Louisville	$34,000	70	-35%

Louisiana

City and Area	Median Salary	Employees	Job Density
Monroe	$33,000	30	+144%

Maryland

City and Area	Median Salary	Employees	Job Density
Baltimore	$46,000	1,210	+420%

Massachusetts

City and Area	Median Salary	Employees	Job Density
Boston	$48,000	300	-3%

Michigan

City and Area	Median Salary	Employees	Job Density
Detroit	$37,000	70	-41%
Grand Rapids	$33,000	30	-55%
Warren	$48,000	60	-69%

Minnesota

City and Area	Median Salary	Employees	Job Density
Minneapolis	$52,000	770	+143%

Missouri

City and Area	Median Salary	Employees	Job Density
St Louis	$38,000	90	-62%

Nebraska

City and Area	Median Salary	Employees	Job Density
Omaha	$36,000	120	+45%

New Hampshire

City and Area	Median Salary	Employees	Job Density
Rochester	$46,000	40	+378%

New Jersey

City and Area	Median Salary	Employees	Job Density
Atlantic City	$64,000	150	+513%
Edison	$61,000	1,400	+668%
Newark	$62,000	1,190	+571%
Trenton	$67,000	500	+1176%

New York

City and Area	Median Salary	Employees	Job Density
Albany	$30,000	100	+26%
New York	$50,000	1,640	+77%
Syracuse	$39,000	30	-45%

North Carolina

City and Area	Median Salary	Employees	Job Density
Durham	$66,000	40	-17%

North Dakota

City and Area	Median Salary	Employees	Job Density
Fargo	$52,000	60	+194%

Ohio

City and Area	Median Salary	Employees	Job Density
Cleveland	$50,000	80	-56%
Toledo	$41,000	90	+76%
Youngstown	$47,000	40	+2%

Oklahoma

City and Area	Median Salary	Employees	Job Density
Oklahoma City	$40,000	70	-31%
Tulsa	$33,000	60	-21%

Oregon

City and Area	Median Salary	Employees	Job Density
Eugene	$92,000	60	+153%
Portland	$55,000	380	+109%
Salem	$55,000	40	+59%

Pennsylvania

City and Area	Median Salary	Employees	Job Density
Allentown	$55,000	220	+263%
Lancaster	$64,000	80	+97%
Philadelphia	$48,000	360	+6%
Pittsburgh	$45,000	160	-21%
York	$44,000	30	0%

South Dakota

City and Area	Median Salary	Employees	Job Density
Rapid City	$39,000	50	+394%

Tennessee

City and Area	Median Salary	Employees	Job Density
Knoxville	$34,000	80	+37%
Memphis	$35,000	180	+65%
Nashville	$29,000	220	+68%

Texas

City and Area	Median Salary	Employees	Job Density
Austin	$51,000	60	-57%
Fort Worth	$44,000	60	-61%
Houston	$53,000	200	-57%

Virginia

City and Area	Median Salary	Employees	Job Density
Lynchburg	$37,000	70	+330%
Richmond	$35,000	250	+130%
Roanoke	$47,000	80	+203%
Virginia Beach	$41,000	250	+86%

Washington

City and Area	Median Salary	Employees	Job Density
Seattle	$41,000	160	-36%
Spokane	$37,000	100	+184%
Tacoma	$45,000	140	+205%

West Virginia

City and Area	Median Salary	Employees	Job Density
Huntington	$39,000	30	+59%
Wheeling	$36,000	30	+190%