What is Marriage and Family Therapy?
The American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy describes the profession as treating not only the individual but a family’s patterns of behavior. The unit of treatment isn’t just the person — even if only a single person is interviewed — it is the set of relationships in which the person is imbedded.
Marriage and family therapy is
- brief
- solution-focused
- specific, with attainable therapeutic goals
Marriage and family therapists treat
- depression
- marital problems
- anxiety
- individual psychological problems
- child–parent problems
Marriage and family therapists regularly practice short-term therapy
- 12 sessions on average
- 66% of the cases are completed within 20 sessions
- 88% within 50 sessions
- marital/couples therapy 12 sessions
- family therapy 9 sessions
- half of the treatment is one-on-one
- half is divided between marital/couple and family therapy
Why use a Marriage and Family Therapist?
Studies show that clients are highly satisfied with services of Marriage and Family Therapists, reporting therapy as good or excellent. Clients report marked improvement in
- work productivity
- co-worker relationships
- family relationships
- partner relationships
- emotional health
- overall physical health
- social life
- community involvement
- child behavior and performance at home and in school
- child ability to get along with other children
Adapted from aamft.org