The marriage and family counseling profession (An editorial)

Abstract

Marriage and family counseling must become an autonomous profession because it is socially necessary, open to those who are qualified to practice it and for those who need it, and consultative. Legally recognized in only five states, it is struggling through growing pains in the rat of the US. The special field of this profession is the procesr of interpersonal dynamics in the intimate setting of the family and its effects on the individual. The clinical work of the marriage and family counselor becomes “adaptive,” “therapeutic” or “maturational,” depending on different variables.