Marriage and family therapists are about average in terms of happiness.
At CareerExplorer, we conduct an ongoing survey with millions of people and ask them how satisfied they are with their careers. As it turns out, marriage and family therapists rate their career happiness 3.2 out of 5 stars which puts them in the top 47% of careers.
To put this into perspective, we compared how happy marriage and family therapists are to similar careers in the industry. Take a look at the results below:
Salaries and satisfaction ratings in similar careers
| Career | Satisfaction | Avg Salary |
|---|---|---|
| Massage therapist | 3.4 | $47k |
| Recreational therapist | 3.4 | $48k |
| Clinical psychologist | 3.3 | $80k |
| Drug and alcohol counselor | 3.3 | $32k |
| Nutritionist | 3.3 | $32k |
| Marriage and family therapist | 3.2 | $50k |
| Mental health counselor | 3.1 | $36k |
| Rehabilitation counselor | 3.0 | $39k |
| School psychologist | 3.0 | $80k |
So what does it mean to be happy in your career? Let’s break it down into different dimensions:
- Salary: Are marriage and family therapists happy with their salary?
- Meaning: Do marriage and family therapists find their jobs meaningful?
- Personality fit: How well suited are people’s personalities to their everyday tasks as marriage and family therapists?
- Work environment: How enjoyable are marriage and family therapist’s work environments?
- Skills utilization: Are marriage and family therapists making the best use of their abilities?
Are marriage and family therapists happy with their salary?
Marriage and family therapists rated their satisfaction with their salaries 2.9/5. Marriage and family therapists tend to be quite unhappy with their salary, with very few reporting satisfaction with their pay.
We asked marriage and family therapists how fairly compensated they are for their work.
Their response was:
2.9 out of 5 stars
115 marriage and family therapists
17% of marriage and family therapists rated their compensation 5 stars
18% of marriage and family therapists rated their compensation 4 stars
21% of marriage and family therapists rated their compensation 3 stars
29% of marriage and family therapists rated their compensation 2 stars
16% of marriage and family therapists rated their compensation 1 stars
Do marriage and family therapists find their jobs meaningful?
On average, marriage and family therapists rate the meaningfulness of their work a 3.8/5. Unlike many careers, marriage and family therapists have little difficulty finding meaning in their work, and it likely constitutes one of the main reasons people become marriage and family therapists.
We asked marriage and family therapists how meaningful they found their work.
Their response was:
3.8 out of 5 stars
118 marriage and family therapists
33% of marriage and family therapists rated how meaningful they found their career 5 stars
32% of marriage and family therapists rated how meaningful they found their career 4 stars
20% of marriage and family therapists rated how meaningful they found their career 3 stars
7% of marriage and family therapists rated how meaningful they found their career 2 stars
8% of marriage and family therapists rated how meaningful they found their career 1 stars
How well are people’s personalities suited to everyday tasks as marriage and family therapists?
Marriage and family therapists rated their personality fit with their work an average of 4.0/5. The majority of marriage and family therapists find their personalities quite well suited to their work, with relatively few having complaints about their fit.
We asked marriage and family therapists how well their personalities fit into their careers.
Their response was:
4.0 out of 5 stars
127 marriage and family therapists
43% of marriage and family therapists rated their career fit 5 stars
31% of marriage and family therapists rated their career fit 4 stars
17% of marriage and family therapists rated their career fit 3 stars
6% of marriage and family therapists rated their career fit 2 stars
4% of marriage and family therapists rated their career fit 1 stars
How enjoyable is a marriage and family therapist’s work environment?
As a whole, marriage and family therapists rated their enjoyment of their work environment 3.6/5. A solid majority of marriage and family therapists enjoy their work environment, probably contributing to overall higher satisfaction with working as a marriage and family therapist.
We asked marriage and family therapists how much they enjoyed their work environment.
Their response was:
3.6 out of 5 stars
128 marriage and family therapists
24% of marriage and family therapists rated their work environment 5 stars
31% of marriage and family therapists rated their work environment 4 stars
31% of marriage and family therapists rated their work environment 3 stars
7% of marriage and family therapists rated their work environment 2 stars
6% of marriage and family therapists rated their work environment 1 stars
Are marriage and family therapists making the best use of their abilities?
Former marriage and family therapists on CareerExplorer have rated their skills utilization 3.8/5. Most marriage and family therapists surveyed find that they manage to use their abilities to their fullest as a marriage and family therapist, which helps contribute to higher career satisfaction in the long term.
We asked marriage and family therapists how well their abilities were used in their careers.
Their response was:
3.8 out of 5 stars
127 marriage and family therapists
34% of marriage and family therapists rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 5 stars
31% of marriage and family therapists rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 4 stars
18% of marriage and family therapists rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 3 stars
13% of marriage and family therapists rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 2 stars
3% of marriage and family therapists rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 1 stars