Becoming a Licensed Marriage Family Therapist in Alabama

A marriage family therapist or marriage family counselor is an individual that treats people that are involved in interpersonal relationships. This may be couples or entire families. The marriage family therapist is trained to assess the individual, couple, or family, diagnose the problem, and come up with a treatment plan in order for the family to achieve a more satisfying relationship with the other individuals.

In the state of Alabama a person that wishes to become a licensed marriage family therapist will need to meet certain education and experience requirements. These requirements are outlined below.

Requirements for Marriage Family Therapists License in Alabama

In order to become a licensed therapist in the state of Alabama a person must first obtain a master’s degree or doctoral degree from an educational institution that has been approved by the state. Once a person has received their degree from an appropriate program the next step is to become a marriage family therapist associate.

In order to apply for the associate designation an individual will need to complete an internship either while earning their qualifying graduate degree or through post graduate experience that consists of either:

• A twelve month internship minimum
• Minimum of 100 supervision hours. This must include at least fifty hours of raw data supervision and group supervision is encouraged.
• Minimum of 500 direct client hours. Of the 500 hours half must be with either families or couples present within the therapy room.

An individual that graduates from a COAMFTE program will have met the above requirements through the program.

Once a person is approved as an MFT associate they can then sit for the national examination for marriage family therapy. The ABEMFT will submit the person’s name to the professional examination service as an eligible candidate for the examination. Registration for the examination is administered by the professional examination service.

The professional examination service will tabulate the results after the testing window and ABEMFT will access the report approximately four weeks later and will then notify the candidates of their scores.

The final step in becoming licensed is obtaining the experience requirements. A person must gain two years of work experience in marriage family therapy under qualified supervision. The supervision must be under a person that has been approved by the board.

A minimum of two years’ work experience is required after a person receives their degree and this must be working more than thirty hours per week. A person must complete 200 hours of post degree supervision as well. Of these 200 hours half of the supervision hours must be individual supervision. There is a total of 1000 direct client hours required to complete the experience requirements.

The final step in becoming licensed in the state of Alabama is to complete and submit the application to the board of examiners for the state.

Learn more about MFT degrees in Alabama.

Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist Career Outlook In Alabama

Marriage and family therapists fall into the category of mental health counselors and the overall job growth in this field is expected to increase by 22% from 2021 through 2031. Employment for marriage and family therapists is expected to increase by 14% in the same time period. This is a much higher rate of growth than the expected average in all occupations.

The average salary for those that are working as a mental health counselor is $49,710 as of May 2022. The median wage for marriage family therapists was $56,570 during this same time. In the state of Alabama the median wage for marriage family therapists was $39,650 in May of 2022. There were 330 individuals employed as a marriage family therapist as of May 2022 in the state of Alabama.

Research Additional Psychology Professional Licenses Granted by Alabama:

• Alabama Psychologist Licensing
• Alabama Counselor Licensing
• Alabama Social Work Licensing
• Learn More About The Career of an LMFT

2022 US Bureau of Labor Statistics job market trends and salary figures for marriage and family therapists and substance abuse, behavioral disorder, and mental health counselors are based on national data, not school-specific information. Conditions in your area may vary. Data accessed August 2023.

Schools with MFT Degree Programs Accepting Students from Alabama