Becoming a Licensed Marriage Family Therapist in Maine
Marriage family therapists work in different settings including colleges, hospitals, substance abuse treatment facilities, and mental health centers. Some marriage family therapists also work in private practices as well as in employee assistance programs. These programs are provided by some employers to help their employees deal with any personal issues that they may have.
In the state of Maine there are several licensing requirements that must be met in order for a person to become a licensed family therapist in the state. Below is an outline of these requirements.
Educational Requirements for Marriage Family Therapists in Maine
In order to become licensed as a marriage family therapist in the state of Maine a person must obtain a master’s degree or doctorate degree in marriage family therapy.
The courses taken during the graduate degree program must include:
- Nine semester hours in marital family studies: three of these nine hours must be in a general systems theory course. The other required semester credit hours can be in courses such as sociology of the family, contemporary family forms, families under stress, external influences from society, family pathology, etc.
- Nine semester hours in marital and family therapy: coursework may include structural, strategic, integrative, systems, experiential, neo-analytic, behavioral treatment and communications.
- Six semester hours of human development: the study of cognitive development, personality theory, or human development through the life cycle is examples of accepted courses to meet this requirement.
- Human sexuality: courses that offer information about human sexuality through the life cycle, sexual function, sexual dysfunction, and sex roles.
- Diagnosis and treatment: courses that provide information about psychopathology, using the statistical manual during counseling, developing treatment plans, role of assessment, reports, and intake interviews.
- Professional orientation: courses that show professional roles, history of the profession, legal and ethical standards, professional credentialing, and professional preparation standards.
- Research and evaluation: courses that discuss the different types of research that is used, research report development, statistics, program evaluation, needs assessment, legal and ethical consideration in evaluation and research.
- Practicum: The practicum is a course of clinical instruction that will provide practical experience in real life settings for the purpose of developing the student’s marriage family counseling skills. The practicum will allow the student to perform a limited about of counseling activities that real marriage family therapists would be expected to know how to perform.
- Internship: The internship is a full academic year of at least 900 clock hours of supervised marriage family counseling. This must include 360 hours of direct contact with the client.
Experience Requirements
Before becoming a licensed marriage family therapist in Maine an individual must have 3000 hours of experience. This includes providing clinical counseling to individuals, couples, and families under the direct supervision of a licensed professional. The supervisor may be a licensed marriage family therapist, and LCPC, a licensed psychiatrist, a licensed psychologist, a CSW-IP, LCSW, a LMSW-CC, or a licensed pastoral counselor.
Of the 3000 required hours at least half must be in direct contact with the client. There must be 100 hours of individual supervision within this time frame and no more than 50 hours can be in a group setting.
Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist Career Outlook In Maine
The job outlook for marriage family therapist is very good. It is expected that the increase in the number of careers in this field is expected to grow by 41% from 2010 through 2020. In May of 2012 there were 80 licensed marriage family counselors. It is believed that this growth is going to be due to the increase in the population as well as the fact that many health insurance companies will begin offering coverage for these services as a part of their policies.
The average salary for marriage family therapists in Maine was $45,940 in May of 2012. The average national salary for those working in this field was $46,670 in 2012. The highest ten percent earned over $75,120.
Research Additional Psychology Professional Licenses Granted by Maine:
- Maine Psychologist Licensing
- Maine Counselor Licensing
- Maine Social Work Licensing
- Learn More About The Career of an LMFT
