LAUSR

When my marriage and family therapy (MFT) graduate students ask me what they can do with their Master’s degrees, I often punctuate my response with Goethe’s encouraging advice: “Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.” Now, thanks to authors Anne Rambo, Tommie V. Boyd, and Martha Gonzalez Marquez, I can recommend a good book to go with the quote. Based on 53 interviews with graduates of COAMFTE-accredited master’s programs in the United States, The Marriage and Family Therapy Career Guide is designed to provide the reader with “success stories [to] give you specific ideas but also inspire you to identify what is unique about you as a MFT, and, we hope, to pursue your dreams.” (p. 6). Following an introductory chapter on the MFT profession, systemic thinking, and the licensing process, and a second chapter on inclusivity and the importance of considering contextual factors and diversity in MFT, the book is organized into 14 MFT work setting chapters, along with a brief summary and conclusion chapter. The work setting chapters include information about MFT careers in 14 areas including private nonprofit agencies, residential treatment, private practice, school-based, collaborating with other professions (medicine and law), coaching, military, managed care, university and postgraduate, faith-based, Indian health services, corporate and entrepreneurial, equine-assisted family therapy, and international settings. Each of these setting-specific chapters begins with a description of the career setting followed by a discussion of licensing requirements, job search information, recommended websites, and typical salary ranges. The chapters conclude with four to five “success stories” based on interviews with MFTs working in that particular setting. Within the chapters, each of the MFT success stories includes a brief personal history and is organized around the interviewees’ responses to five core interview questions: (a) “What is this job like for you?” (b) “How did you get a job like this?” (c) “What is most rewarding?” (d) “What is most challenging?” and (e) “What about your MFT training is most helpful to you?” The success stories conclude with the interviewee’s thoughts about the importance of diversity in MFT work. While this format may feel a bit repetitious for some readers, it does provide a concise, consistent basis for comparing MFT career information from chapter to chapter and from work setting to work setting. As a career guide for emerging MFT professionals, this book has numerous strengths. First, it provides practical and honest information, websites and resources for each work setting. For example, in the chapter on coaching (Chapter 8) the authors note that “fewer than 8% with the life coach job title make a full-time living at the profession” (p. 61) and suggest looking into a number of coaching and credentialing organizations, including the Independent Educational Consultants Association (www.iecaonline.com). Similarly, in the chapter on managed care settings (Chapter 10), one of the MFT interviewees states that her training in medical family therapy was very helpful (p. 87). As such, the authors provide a list of resources that can provide additional information about medical family therapy. A second strength of the book is revealed in its inclusive and inspiring collection of MFT success stories. The interviewees not only practice in diverse professional settings, they are diverse in personal background, race, gender, ethnicity, sexuality, region, culture, and theoretical orientation. For example, in the chapter on private practice (Chapter 5), the featured MFTs include a male LMFT and approved supervisor doing brief family therapy with a large private practice in an urban area, a former attorney raised in France who now specializes in working with children in rural Oklahoma, and a self-described “thirty-something female MFT of color practicing therapy