It feels like things have reached a breaking point in your relationship. It isn’t just your typical marital fights anymore. You need to do something different, now. There may be a time in your relationship that you hit that wall. This is usually when a couple (or family) will decide that it is time to involve a professional. Sometimes they have connections and can get a personal referral, but other times they end up on the internet, consulting everyone’s best friend, Google.
Looking for a therapist or counselor can become overwhelming, especially with the variety of licenses and degrees out there. When deciding whether to see a marriage and family therapist (LMFT), psychologist, mental health counselor (LMHC), or social worker (LISW), it is difficult to know if they will be a good fit. While personality is always an important piece, that isn’t something you can assess before meeting with the therapist. One area that you can look at beforehand is at the therapist’s qualifications and license.
First consideration what type of therapy you are seeking. While individual therapy is the stereotypical route in many mental health fields, the research has shown couple/family therapy to be an effective treatment option for a variety of symptoms and disorders. For many issues, it has even become the preferred method of treatment. As the need for this type of therapy increases so does the concern of the amount of training mental health professionals have in this unique type of therapy.
Family therapy can be complicated and involves monitoring and maintaining contact with multiple individuals at the same time. In a study that compared the licensing and training requirements of six different mental health professions, research showed that marriage and family therapists are required to have at least 16 times more supervised training in providing family therapy then the other mental health professions. On average a person applying for licensure in marriage and family therapy has to have 349 hours of direct therapy experience with families. The most surprising finding of the study is that most other mental health professions required NO training in family therapy to become licensed. While individual providers can pursue extra training in the area of family or couples therapy, marriage and family therapists are the only profession who requires a significant amount of training to be licensed.
So as you are reading this you may say “well she is biased because she is a licensed marriage and family therapist.” That is true. I am a LMFT and I appreciate the amount of training I have received in working with couples and families. That being said, other licenses can seek out additional trainings that will help them to work with couples and families effectively. Some of these include certifications or trainings in: Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT), Gottman Method Couples Therapy, Internal Family Systems (IFS), Sex Therapy, and Imago Therapy. The best advice is to talk to the individual therapist or counselor about their qualifications and trainings. This will ensure you are getting someone qualified to work with your concerns.
Our office at Cedar Rapids Relationship Center is staffed exclusively with marriage and family therapists. We have been trained to look at the interactions between family members and the influence of everyone in the system on the mental health of the individuals. Whether working with entire families or small subsets, such as couples, we look at families through a variety of lens including their structure, interactions, roles, and boundaries. We recognize that an individual person does not live an isolated experience and their connections with others are an important piece of the puzzle.