What accreditation to become a family/marriage counselor?

lilmissy asked:

I want to become a family/marriage counselor. I’m working on a bachelor of psychology now. I don’t have the time to become a licensed psychologist, I just want to work with hurting children and families.
I’ve heard some people say it takes hours (approx. 2000) of clinical work before you can become licensed.
How is it then that pastors have clergy licenses and are able to counsel people.
I’m wondering if it would be easier to get a theology degree and counsel through a church.
Any suggestions?

marriage

Share and Enjoy:

Tweet This Post

Comments (1) Posted in Psychology

Subscribe RSS 2.0 feed. Leave a response, or Trackback from your own site.

Best Deal Ads :

One Response to 'What accreditation to become a family/marriage counselor?'

The Therapist - November 17th, 2008 at 1:13 pm
Create a video blog…instantly.

If you live in California (which is one of the strictest states) then you have to complete 3000 hours clinical work before you can get licensed. Pastors can do some counseling because the licensing is different for them as is for drug and alcohol counselors as well.
The benefit of getting licensed is that you can have your practice and generally speaking, licensed therapists make more money.
Keep in mind: Pastors can generally only provide low-level counseling, can’t open up a practice and getting a job with that type of degree will be very difficult.
You can work as a Marriage and Family Therapist, for someone else (such as a clinic, a business, governement) but you only have 6 years after you get your intern number to get licensed.

FYI…Oregon only requires 500 hours to get licensed.