August 20, 2013

How To Become A Marriage And Family Therapist

By Essie Craft


It is actually very common to have families with a lot of deep rooted problems that cannot be solved just by sitting on the dining table and talking. Sometimes, there are problems that are so bad because of their nature that an objective third party may have to step in to help these families. Now this third party person is known as a marriage and family therapist and he would specialize in fixing problems in this type of area.

Now before he can become a licensed practitioner, he must first have the necessary credentials in order to apply. The first thing that he must have would be a bachelors degree in a course that is psychology related. Aside from that, he will also be needing a masters degree before he can try to go for the the exam in order to become a practitioner.

The mental preparation of therapists is extremely important because they will be handling problems all day and some problems may be so bad that it may even break the heart of the therapist. That is why it is very important for him to have a very strong mind and personality in order to be able to take these things. If he does not, he will become too attached to the clients and will be involved in their problems as well.

Usually, psychologists or therapists would be looking at the internal conflicts that would be brewing inside each of the clients. In other words, a traditional therapist would be looking at each individual and try to make them blend with each other. Their principle is that if one can become well internally, then the external will follow.

However, these specialists would want to look at the family collectively. In other words, they will be looking at the family as an entire unit and all of them are considered to be an entire entity. What they would do is that they would look at the core problem of the entity and try to fix it from there instead of focusing on each of the members as individuals.

Before actually giving out treatment to the clients, it is very important for the therapist to be able to know what the problem of the clients is. He will have to go through some assessments first like questionnaires, surveys, or other written assessment means. The reason why most assessments are written is because not all clients would feel comfortable having a dialogue at first.

As far as the treatment goes, there are a lot of possible ways to be able to help with the problem of the parties. Basically, the goal with the treatment is to make sure that all of the parties are going to communicate with each other. Journal writing, communication exercises, written exercises and other activities are some of the most commonly used methods.

So basically, those are the things that a marriage and family therapist would be doing. Take note that a person in this field must also possess certain qualities. It is very important that therapists would not be judgmental so that they can get the clients to open up.




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