# Marriage and Family Therapists

> Diagnose and treat mental and emotional disorders, whether cognitive, affective, or behavioral, within the context of marriage and family systems. Apply psychotherapeutic and family systems theories and techniques in the delivery of services to individuals, couples, and families for the purpose of treating such diagnosed nervous and mental disorders.

- **SOC code:** 21-1013.00
- **Canonical URL:** https://singulariki.com/roles/role-21-1013-00
- **Also known as:** Clinical Therapist, Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT), Marriage and Family Therapist (MFT), Outpatient Therapist, Counselor, Family Therapist, Human Relations Counselor, Licensed Professional Counselor (LPC)
- **Frame:** "AI exposure" means task overlap (how codifiable the work is), not jobs lost or a forecast. Every figure below is traced to a named public dataset.

## What this work is

**Core tasks** (O*NET):
- Encourage individuals and family members to develop and use skills and strategies for confronting their problems in a constructive manner.
- Ask questions that will help clients identify their feelings and behaviors.
- Develop and implement individualized treatment plans addressing family relationship problems, destructive patterns of behavior, and other personal issues.
- Maintain case files that include activities, progress notes, evaluations, and recommendations.
- Counsel clients on concerns, such as unsatisfactory relationships, divorce and separation, child rearing, home management, or financial difficulties.
- Collect information about clients, using techniques such as testing, interviewing, discussion, or observation.
- Confer with clients to develop plans for posttreatment activities.
- Confer with other counselors, doctors, and professionals to analyze individual cases and to coordinate counseling services.
- Determine whether clients should be counseled or referred to other specialists in such fields as medicine, psychiatry, or legal aid.
- Follow up on results of counseling programs and clients' adjustments to determine effectiveness of programs.
- Supervise other counselors, social service staff, and assistants.
- Provide instructions to clients on how to obtain help with legal, financial, and other personal issues.

**Emerging tasks** (O*NET):
- Diagnose mental and emotional disorders in clients.

## Skills, tools, capabilities

**Knowledge, skills & abilities** (O*NET, highest importance first):
- Therapy and Counseling _(knowledge)_
- Psychology _(knowledge)_
- Active Listening _(essential_skill)_
- Social Perceptiveness _(transferable_skill)_
- Speaking _(essential_skill)_
- Oral Comprehension _(ability)_
- Oral Expression _(ability)_
- Reading Comprehension _(essential_skill)_
- Writing _(essential_skill)_
- Service Orientation _(transferable_skill)_
- Complex Problem Solving _(transferable_skill)_
- Judgment and Decision Making _(transferable_skill)_

**Skills in demand:**
- Psychology _(Specialized Skill)_
- Active Listening _(Common Skill)_
- Social Perceptiveness _(Common Skill)_
- Writing _(Common Skill)_
- Speech Recognition _(Specialized Skill)_
- Reading Comprehension _(Common Skill)_
- Inductive Reasoning _(Common Skill)_
- Deductive Reasoning _(Common Skill)_
- Complex Problem Solving _(Common Skill)_
- Critical Thinking _(Common Skill)_
- Active Learning _(Common Skill)_
- English Language _(Common Skill)_

**Tools & technology:**
- Zoom _(hot technology, in demand)_
- Intuit QuickBooks _(hot technology)_
- Microsoft Access _(hot technology)_
- Microsoft Excel _(hot technology)_
- Microsoft Office software _(hot technology)_
- Microsoft Outlook _(hot technology)_
- Microsoft PowerPoint _(hot technology)_
- Microsoft Teams _(hot technology)_
- Microsoft Word _(hot technology)_
- Google Meet _(in demand)_
- Advantage Software Psych Advantage
- American Medical Billing Software PMA

## AI exposure & outlook

- **AI task-overlap index:** 62nd percentile (Moderate) across all occupations — composite of current-era exposure studies (ai-exposure-index-v1).
- **Overall AI exposure (Felten et al.):** 94th percentile (High) — source: felten_aioe.
- **LLM task exposure, γ (OpenAI / Eloundou):** 19th percentile (Low) — source: eloundou_gamma.
- **AI assistant applicability (Microsoft):** 75th percentile (High) — source: microsoft_applicability.
- **Frey–Osborne (2013, historical computerization estimate):** 9th percentile — kept separate from current-era studies.
- **Remote-capable (Dingel–Neiman):** yes — task structure, not who actually works remote.
- **Projected employment (BLS 2024–34):** 12.6% growth (Growing fast); 7.7k annual openings; 77.8k → 87.7k jobs.
- **Pay & employment (BLS OEWS, May 2024):** median $63,780; 65,870 employed.

## How people actually use AI here

Anthropic Economic Index — measured AI conversations mapped to this occupation's tasks:

- **Automation vs augmentation:** 22% automation, 66% augmentation (usage-weighted).
- **Autonomy median:** 4.0 (higher = AI acts more independently).
- **Dominant collaboration mode:** learning.

**Tasks most handed to AI here:**
- Encourage individuals and family members to develop and use skills and strategies for confronting their problems in a constructive manner. _(7.5% of measured AI use; learning)_
- Ask questions that will help clients identify their feelings and behaviors. _(2.1% of measured AI use; learning)_
- Provide instructions to clients on how to obtain help with legal, financial, and other personal issues. _(1.2% of measured AI use; learning)_
- Provide public education and consultation to other professionals or groups regarding counseling services, issues, and methods. _(1.1% of measured AI use; learning)_
- Develop and implement individualized treatment plans addressing family relationship problems, destructive patterns of behavior, and other personal issues. _(0.7% of measured AI use; task iteration)_
- Collect information about clients, using techniques such as testing, interviewing, discussion, and observation. _(0.4% of measured AI use; directive)_

**Example prompts (honest phrasings of the tasks above — starting points, not endorsed instructions):**
- Help me encourage individuals and family members to develop and use skills and strategies for confronting their problems in a constructive manner.
- Help me ask questions that will help clients identify their feelings and behaviors.
- Help me provide instructions to clients on how to obtain help with legal, financial, and other personal issues.
- Help me provide public education and consultation to other professionals or groups regarding counseling services, issues, and methods.
- Help me develop and implement individualized treatment plans addressing family relationship problems, destructive patterns of behavior, and other personal issues.

## Sources

- **O*NET** (30.3) — U.S. Department of Labor / National Center for O*NET Development. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html
- **BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS)** (May 2024) — U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. https://www.bls.gov/oes/
- **BLS Employment Projections** (2024–2034) — U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **Anthropic Economic Index** (v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27)) — Anthropic. https://www.anthropic.com/economic-index
- **Microsoft “Working with AI”** (working-with-ai) — Microsoft Research. https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/research/
- **“GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.)** (arXiv 2303.10130) — OpenAI / academic. https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.10130
- **AI Occupational Exposure (AIOE)** (Felten, Raj & Seamans) — academic. https://github.com/AIOE-Data/AIOE
- **Frey & Osborne (2013)** (frey-osborne-automation) — academic. https://www.oxfordmartin.ox.ac.uk/publications/the-future-of-employment/
- **Dingel & Neiman (2020)** (dingel-neiman-workathome) — academic. https://github.com/jdingel/DingelNeiman-workathome

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_Generated from Singulariki's joined dataset; data snapshot 2026-06-02T21:00:32.945303+00:00. https://singulariki.com/roles/role-21-1013-00_