Monday, August 19, 2013

What A Marriage And Family Therapist Does

By Essie Craft


There are so many families and spouses today who have problems understanding each other because of the lack of proper communication and openness between the affected parties. Because of this kind of problem, there has been a demand for certain therapists who specialize in this type of field. A person who focuses on this aspect of psychology and counselling is known as a marriage and family therapist.

Now it is very important to take note that without the necessary educational background, it is impossible to be able to pursue this type of path. This would mean that one will be needing to graduate with a psychology degree or something in that field. He will also need a masters degree in another related course which would take another two years in order to complete.

Now one thing that therapists must take note of would be the fact that they would be listening to family problems everyday which means that they must prepare themselves. They will be listening to problems that revolve third party affairs, finance problems, and family feuds. That is why therapists must be able to prepare themselves mentally so that they will not be affected by the problems of their clients.

Now these specialists are actually very different from traditional counsellors with regard to their approach to the client. Traditional therapists would want to take each family member as an individual person and deal with the problems of each one. From the internal problems, the external ones will be able to be fixed from there.

The specialists on the other hand, would approach the family as a collective unit. This would mean that he would be approaching them as a single entity and fix the problem at the core. What he would do is that he would focus on the main problem of the unit and then work from that part in order to make each individual more sensitive to the others.

Now before taking a look at the solution of the client, one must first be able to find out the main underlying problem that each party has with each other. Since a lot of clients do not respond well to dialogues at the start, one must prepare some written assessment methods. This may include some questionnaires, surveys, or probably even some written activities for the parties to do.

Once one has already assessed the main problem of the client, then the next step would be to go for the treatment. The main purpose here is to be able to get the parties to open up to each other and be willing to communicate. Now tools like journals, communication programs, or maybe even some short activities may be a very big help to the clients.

Now as one can see, there are a lot of things to take note of when becoming a marriage and family therapist. However, if one would be interested in this field, there is one quality one should have. That quality is to be open minded and non judgmental because these qualities will allow the clients to open up.




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