therapist licensing - LMFT or MFCC?

iVillage Member
Registered: 11-04-2003
therapist licensing - LMFT or MFCC?
4
Thu, 01-08-2009 - 9:21am

Hi Dr. Shoshanna! I bet your the perfect person to answer this question for me. When my husband and I sought out a marriage therapist I found a therapist in my health coverage providers list. I spoke with her on the phone first and one of her specialties is marriage and family therapy. We've seen her once together, twice in individual sessions, and then once again together (in that order). It hasn't gone very far, but I understand that it takes time. Our reason for being there is that my husband is unhappy and not feeling 'in love'. He is the one contemplating leaving. But he was willing to go to counseling and that shows me that we CAN get this love back, and now that I'm aware of his feelings I want to improve the relationship as well.


After our last session she recommended that my husband see his own therapist to sort through his feelings and help make his decision (to stay or leave). He is set to see someone new, a man this time. I hope it'll be good for him to get a male perspective, maybe he'll connect better. I am going to continue to see our first therapist for my own individual therapy to help me get through this very hard time.


Right now I'm questioning licensing. Her (our first therapist) information is listed as LCSW license w/ a MSW degree. Do you think that it is important for us to be seeing someone that has an LMFT or MFCC degree? Is that our best bet? I haven't completely connected w/ our first therapist anyways and I'm just wondering if we would be better with someone with more marriage/couples expertise.


What do you think?


Thank you sooo much!


- Katiegirl14




Edited 1/8/2009 3:39 pm ET by katiegirl14
iVillage Member
Registered: 11-04-2003
Tue, 01-13-2009 - 11:08am
any thoughts on this? please!
iVillage Member
Registered: 02-05-2007
Tue, 01-13-2009 - 12:52pm

iVillage Member
Registered: 11-29-2006
Tue, 01-13-2009 - 1:17pm
Hi there and welcome to the board. I'm not sure the types of degrees are as important as the quality of care the individual therapist gives, but I do think that if you're not connecting with this current therapist, then you should probably shop around and find someone with whom you will feel more comfortable. Just my two cents...

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iVillage Member
Registered: 12-06-2001
Tue, 01-13-2009 - 2:37pm

The degree is not as important as the connection you feel with the therapist/counselor.