Marriage and Family Therapist

Marriage and family therapists, or MFTs, are mental health professionals who treat people’s emotional and behavioral problems within the context of their family relationships. Having earned a master’s degree, or completed a doctoral or other post-graduate clinical training program, plus meeting additional requirements for licensure, MFTs are prepared to treat a wide variety of interpersonal mental health problems.

In both urban and rural areas where NHSC clinicians serve, MFTs are relied upon for their ability to support families struggling with problems, such as severe mental illnesses like schizophrenia and depression; drug and alcohol abuse; and domestic violence and sexual abuse.

Brett Dickison, LMFT
In It for the Long Haul: Counseling Violent Offenders and Their Victims

The rural Utah courts didn’t disagree that domestic violence counseling might improve offenders’ mental health, but judges hesitated to order treatment when the nearest therapists were a 70-mile drive away. So now, licensed marriage and family therapist (LMFT) Brett Dickison travels the long road from his Cedar City home to some of Utah’s rural areas at least once a week, which makes judges much more likely to order rehabilitative counseling for those convicted in their courtrooms.

Victims of domestic violence comprise the other most common group of clients for Dickison, whose main office is in Panguitch, Utah. He helps them to recover a sense of safety, while recuperating from the trauma of being violently victimized by someone they called family. Says the 37-year-old therapist, "In this role, I see people empowered to rebuild their lives, as their sense of self is restored and they begin to have healthier relationships."

We asked Dickison about the NHSC:

What difference has the NHSC made in your community?
The NHSC has helped draw and maintain some really quality professionals to this area, which has greatly enhanced local mental health services. The NHSC presence and increased availability of health services translate into increased safety for some, though we certainly have far to go to stamp out domestic violence and other traumatic family issues. Though changes can come slowly, I’m rewarded by seeing improvements take hold in this area.

What difference has the NHSC made in your professional life?
As the father of 4 young children, having the opportunity to ease the burden of my loans was a big draw initially.When I came, I planned to live here at most a couple of years. But we’ve fallen in love with this small, rural area that the NHSC introduced us to. Cedar City, with its friendly people, is a nice place to raise a family.

The NHSC was an influencing factor, too, in my decision to work in the area of domestic violence.With the knowledge that I was making a commitment and staying in this area for a time, I started providing in-home social work services with abused and neglected children and their families. I could make even better use of my clinical skills working on domestic violence issues and make the greatest difference here that way.