Licensed Marriage and Family Therapists (LMFT) provide clinical mental health care to a variety of populations, which can include individuals, couples, families, and groups. While there are a variety of counseling disciplines, the education and scope of practice that LMFTs have focuses on relational functioning: i.e. the way our relationships with other people influence us and we them. As an aspiring MFT, taking the following steps to gain the necessary education and credentials will help set you up for a fulfilling career helping people to improve their relationships and enhance their understanding of the systems in which they live.
Minnesota in particular is an opportunistic state to obtain MFT licensure in. The career is expected to grow by 14.7% by 2032, according to MN Employment and Economic Development data. In fact, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics quotes Minnesota as second only to California in terms of employment level for MFTs across the country. The majority of MFTs working in Minnesota also report being satisfied with their jobs. A survey conducted by the MN Department of Health in 2019 reported that 97% of MFTs responded as “very satisfied” or “satisfied” throughout their overall career while in Minnesota.
Education Requirements
In Minnesota, the path towards MFT licensure starts with obtaining a bachelor’s degree with a psychology, sociology, or social work related major. The second step in the journey is a master’s degree in Marriage and Family Therapy, so it can be helpful to research the program you will be pursuing for graduate studies to ensure that your bachelor’s degree will meet requirements for admittance to the MFT program. However, if you are not sure what school you will be attending for your graduate degree, most psychology and family science-related bachelor’s degrees will suffice.
After completing the necessary undergraduate schooling, the next step is to enroll and complete the aforementioned master’s degree in Marriage and Family Therapy. It is important to determine if the school you will be attending is accredited by the Commission on Accreditation for Marriage and Family Therapy Education (COAMFTE). A COAMFTE-accredited program will ensure that your education satisfies the necessary requirements for the next step: your associate’s license.
Practicum Experience
Toward the end of your master’s degree program, a number of the credits required to complete your degree will be spent in a practicum or internship where you gain hands-on experience working with clients directly (with the guidance of a supervisor). The field of therapy is best learned experientially through the building of the therapeutic relationship, so spending time in the field is an imperative part of the process. Your practicum experience will need to include a total of 300 hours of supervised client contact. For an MFT specifically, half of these hours need to be with family units or couples.
If you have an idea of what demographic of clients you hope to work with, it can be helpful to apply for internship opportunities that already work with those populations. Doing so will give you an opportunity to judge your affinity for working with those types of clients. It can also help you identify any further education you may want to pursue. For example, an MFT who is interested in working with children may want to also consider gaining a Registered Play Therapy (RPT) certificate to help enhance their knowledge and skill set in working with young children and their parents.
Post-Graduate Steps
Once your internship is completed and your master’s degree is in hand, you can then apply for the national MFT exam. This exam is a computerized multiple-choice test that you will take at a proxy-monitored testing site. It will test your knowledge of the theories and practices related to the field of marriage and family therapy that you learned during your graduate program. It generally takes several weeks to receive your results.
Associate Licensure
If you pass the national exam, you are granted your associate’s license. This means that you are eligible to practice therapy in the state of Minnesota. Your associate’s license will need to be renewed on a yearly basis as you continue to work towards becoming fully licensed.
While an associate’s license allows you to begin practicing therapy with patients, you will still be required to receive training and supervision from a board-approved supervisor. Many organizations or agencies will have supervisors on site that you can meet with to fulfill these hours, but in some cases, you will need to seek this supervision from an outside source. The list of currently licensed supervisors is available on the MN Board of Marriage and Family Therapy website.
Supervision Requirements
In regard to the supervised hour requirements, you will want to keep close track of any amount of time you spend doing tasks or work related to therapy, both in and out of sessions. Even spending time writing clients’ progress notes can count toward a portion of your hours for licensure. The time requirements for post-graduate experience are as follows: a minimum of 4,000 hours of clinical work over a span of no less than two years; 1000 of these hours must be direct client contact hours and 500 of said client contact hours must be with families, couples, or other groups. The supervision portion of your hours should amount to no less than 200 hours with half of these hours being individual supervision.
Applying for Full Licensure
Once you have completed all the necessary post-graduate hours, there will be one final exam to pass. This is an ethics exam that generally happens verbally with members of the MFT board. They will ask questions related to the policies and statutes that govern MFT license holders in the state of Minnesota. These rules are publicly available, but you will also have had a course during your graduate studies that cover the application of these as it pertains to your work as a therapist. The purpose of the ethics board exam is to verify your ability to effectively identify and manage ethical issues that can and will arise as you practice therapy.
Along with your application for the ethics exam, you will need two recommendation letters from other licensed therapists. These can be people you have worked alongside, such as colleagues, your supervisor, or instructors from your graduate program that also hold an active MFT or closely related counseling license. These individuals should have been a witness to your education or professional development process and have some knowledge of your skills and abilities as a therapist. They should be willing and able to attest to your level of competency to practice therapy and maintain an MFT license. Once you receive confirmation that you have passed the ethics exam, congratulations! You are now a fully licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in Minnesota. You can practice without supervision, which allows you to be credentialed with insurance companies to bill for your services.
Maintaining Your License
Just like the associate’s license, your MFT license will need to be renewed through the MN Board of MFT on a yearly basis. There are also requirements to maintain licensure that are important to consider. Every other year that you renew your license, you will be required to attest to having received at least 40 continuing education (CE) credits. The Board will want to see at least 3 of these credits being designated to ethics-related instruction, and 4 of the credits focusing on cultural competency. If you determine that you want to become a board-approved supervisor down the road, there are also expectations that 4 of your CE hours would include a training that is centered around supervisory skills.
Becoming a Board-Approved Supervisor
Obtaining supervisor status is a longer-term process that one can pursue if they choose. To become a board-approved supervisor, you must have maintained your MFT license in good standing for at least four years. During that period of four years, you should be able to confirm that you have spent at least another 4,000 hours in direct client contact. You will also need to attend training to learn about the skills and ethical practices necessary to be a supervisor. The training should be equivalent to 30 credit hours and must be approved by the board as an adequate course. Becoming a supervisor is not a necessary step of MFT licensure- however, the benefits can include increased pay grade and opportunities to share the knowledge you have gained with people who are starting out just like you once were.
Conclusion
Marriage and family therapy is a rewarding and lucrative career choice. Minnesota is regarded highly as a state in which obtaining and holding an MFT license means plenty of job opportunities and likelihood of career satisfaction. The steps to pursue marriage and family therapy as a vocation can seem overwhelming and long, but the payoff is worth the journey. Not only will you learn a tremendous amount about other people, but you will also learn a lot about yourself along the way. It is an opportunity to make deep, meaningful connections with others and sit by them in both their highest highs and lowest lows.
