Resume guide · Job Zone 5

Marriage and Family Therapistsresume guide.

Diagnose and treat mental and emotional disorders, whether cognitive, affective, or behavioral, within the context of marriage and family systems. A strong Marriage and Family Therapists resume shows active listening, social perceptiveness and speaking, and names the tools you have worked with, such as Zoom, Intuit QuickBooks and Microsoft Access.

See how a parser reads your resumeFree, no card→

01Also called

O*NET
Clinical TherapistCouple and Family TherapistFamily SpecialistFamily TherapistLCMFT (Licensed Clinical Marriage and Family Therapist)LMFT (Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist)Marriage and Family CounselorMultisystemic TherapistPlay TherapistTherapist

02Skills employers expect

O*NET

Importance is how much the skill matters to the job; level is how much of it the job demands. Both are worth naming on the resume, in this order.

SkillImportanceLevel
Active ListeningVery highAdvanced
Social PerceptivenessVery highAdvanced
SpeakingVery highAdvanced
Service OrientationVery highAdvanced
Complex Problem SolvingVery highAdvanced
Judgment and Decision MakingVery highAdvanced
Reading ComprehensionVery highAdvanced
Active LearningHighAdvanced
Critical ThinkingHighAdvanced
MonitoringHighAdvanced

03Knowledge areas

O*NET
  • Therapy and Counseling
  • Psychology
  • Sociology and Anthropology
  • Customer and Personal Service
  • English Language
  • Education and Training
  • Administrative
  • Philosophy and Theology
  • Law and Government
  • Administration and Management

04Common responsibilities

O*NET

Ordered by importance. Each one is a bullet waiting for a result and a number.

  1. Ask questions that will help clients identify their feelings and behaviors.
  2. Encourage individuals and family members to develop and use skills and strategies for confronting their problems in a constructive manner.
  3. Develop and implement individualized treatment plans addressing family relationship problems, destructive patterns of behavior, and other personal issues.
  4. Maintain case files that include activities, progress notes, evaluations, and recommendations.
  5. Counsel clients on concerns, such as unsatisfactory relationships, divorce and separation, child rearing, home management, or financial difficulties.
  6. Determine whether clients should be counseled or referred to other specialists in such fields as medicine, psychiatry, or legal aid.
  7. Supervise other counselors, social service staff, and assistants.
  8. Confer with other counselors, doctors, and professionals to analyze individual cases and to coordinate counseling services.
  9. Diagnose mental and emotional disorders in clients.
  10. Confer with clients to develop plans for posttreatment activities.

05Software and tools

O*NET

32 tools across 13 categories. The six largest categories are below; Hot marks a hot technology, In demand a tool employers ask for most often.

Medical software17
  • eMDs Medisoft
  • Advantage Software Psych Advantage
  • Anasazi Software Client Data System
  • Beaver Creek Software The THERAPIST
  • Blueberry Harbor Software Clinical Record Keeper
  • Casamba Smart
  • DocuTrac QuicDoc
  • Mdansby The PsychReport
  • PracticePRO Software Systems QuickPractice
  • TheraManager
  • Care Paths eRecord
  • Cornucopia Software Practice MAGIC
  • Netsmart Technologies Helper
  • PM/2 Clinical Planner
  • Saner Software ShrinkRapt
  • SumTime Software SumTime
  • Synergistic Office Solutions SOS Case Manager
+ 12 more
Billing and invoicing software3
  • EZClaim medical billing software
  • American Medical Billing Software PMA
  • EZ2Bill Confidant
Video conferencing software2
  • ZoomHotIn demand
  • Google MeetIn demand
Accounting software1
Data base user interface and query software1
Electronic mail software1
Internet browser software1
Office suite software1
Presentation software1
Project management software1
  • Microsoft TeamsHotIn demand
Spreadsheet software1
Web platform development software1
  • Hypertext preprocessor PHP
Word processing software1

06Education and preparation

O*NET
Typical education
Master's Degree
87% of surveyed workers. Others report Post-Master's Certificate (10%) and Doctor's Degree - Research/Scholarship (such as a Ph.D.) (3%).
Preparation level
Job Zone 5 · Extensive preparation
Usually a graduate degree and extensive related experience.

07Putting it on your resume

ResumeXRays guidance
BEE · How to show it

Lead with what you built. For a Job Zone 5 role, hiring managers and parsers both look for outcomes before credentials. Put two or three results at the top of each job entry, with the scale or effect stated plainly.

Name the tools exactly. This occupation is heavy on named software. A skills section that says "Zoom, Intuit QuickBooks, Microsoft Access, Microsoft Outlook" matches more job descriptions than a general phrase. Use the spelling employers use.

Show social perceptiveness and speaking, not just active listening. Social perceptiveness and speaking rank close to active listening for this occupation. One bullet per role that shows a decision, a tradeoff or a result covers them.

Run your resume through the free scan →

See your fitbefore youhit apply.

Drop your resume and see what a parser flags before you send it. Free, no card.

Analyze your resume free →$0 to start · No card · Free plan forever