Job outlook for Marriage and Family Therapists (student loans, school)

[BGSP1971]

I'm in a MFT program in SoCal and I'm growing concerned that I may have made a bad decision. The buzz I've gathered over the past several months is that there is a glut in the market of MFT's and MFT students, so finding a practicum site has become extremely difficult. Once you graduate, full-time, paid internships (internships that pay enough to live on and make payments on your student loans) are now few and far between. Mostly I've seen advertisements for volunteer post-graduation internships. How does anyone do that and support themselves?

What have you heard/seen?

[luckodeirish]

Honestly, there are a lot of therapists in LA/OC. If you want to eventually go into clinical practice you either do cash pay only (good luck) or join all the managed care panels, which actually unless you have a very unique specialty, or speak a foreign language they will tell you the panels are closed.
Plus, you will have to be 2 years post licensure to be qualified to be considered to be a provider for managed care organizations.
On the job side, there are different options, but my best advice is if you are going to stay in the program you have to do something to set yourself apart from the other thousands of therapists in southern California. Find a niche, and learn how to market yourself like a maniac. Good luck.

[BGSP1971]

At this point, I'm more worried about finding a practicum so I can even graduate, then about getting a paid internship so I can support myself while paying down my student loans. I'll worry about post-licensure issues later, though I do want to work in private practice.

I've run into the foreign language issue already in my practicum search. I speak Japanese, but everyone seems to want Spanish, some dialect of Chinese or Vietnamese.

I'm really looking for confirmation as to whether or not there is in fact a glut in the market of MFT's and whether or not properly paid internships are largely a thing of the past.

The post licensure info was interesting, though. Thanks for replying.

[luckodeirish]

I am wondering why your program is not providing direction relative to a paid internship. When I was in grad school (I earned my PhD in clinical psych some years ago) we were assisted with finding internships, or at least given an idea where to search. Is this not happening? Is there any information on the CAMFT website?

[BGSP1971]

I'm not looking for a post-graduate internship yet. I'm looking for a practicum and the head of my program is helping. I contacted CAMFT about this issue and interestingly, they have no information on the number of students looking for a practicum and the number of practicums available or on how many people are graduating from MFT programs vs. the number of graduates getting full-time, gainfully paid internships. Odd, no? You'd think our state professional organization would be interested in the employment outlook for aspiring MFT's. Given what I've gathered over the past several months (the issues I raised in my original post) it makes me think CAMFT doesn't want to know what the real situation is because they also suspect it's bad. I'm just guessing about that, though. I also just sent an email to the AAMFT yesterday, but I haven't heard back yet. We'll see what they say.

[luckodeirish]

I hope you find something, I really do. Back in the olden days lol the school helped us find our practicums/internships, there were a number to choose from. Sure, everyone had to interview at their desired location but everyone got a placement. However, I will tell you that none of them paid any more than a "stipend" which basically covered gas and maybe your lunch while you were at your internship.
I agree with your comment about CAMFT, it's too bad.

[Puaena777]

I am in need of scholarships to finish my masters in marriage & family counseling here in Hawaii. Any suggestions?
Thank you