Consultant Marriage Question:

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Marriage and family therapist responsibilities are to ask questions that will help clients identify their feelings and behaviors; 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; counsel clients on concerns, such as unsatisfactory relationships, divorce and separation, child rearing, home management, and financial difficulties; determine whether clients should be counseled or referred to other specialists in such fields as medicine, psychiatry, and legal aid; encourage individuals and family members to develop and use skills and strategies for confronting their problems in a constructive manner; maintain case files that include activities, progress notes, evaluations, and recommendations; develop and implement individualized treatment plans addressing family relationship problems, destructive patterns of behavior, and other personal issues; collect information about clients, using techniques such as testing, interviewing, discussion, and observation; provide instructions to clients on how to obtain help with legal, financial, and other personal issues; follow up on results of counseling programs and clients' adjustments to determine effectiveness of programs; provide public education and consultation to other professionals or groups regarding counseling services, issues, and methods; gather information from doctors, schools, social workers, juvenile counselors, law enforcement personnel, and others to make recommendations to courts for resolution of child custody or visitation disputes; write evaluations of parents and children for use by courts deciding divorce and custody cases, testifying in court if necessary; supervise other counselors, social service staff, and assistants; provide family counseling and treatment services to inmates participating in substance abuse programs.