Marriage therapists are about average in terms of happiness.
At CareerExplorer, we conduct an ongoing survey with millions of people and ask them how satisfied they are with their careers. As it turns out, marriage therapists rate their career happiness 3.2 out of 5 stars which puts them in the top 47% of careers.
To put this into perspective, we compared how happy marriage therapists are to similar careers in the industry. Take a look at the results below:
Salaries and satisfaction ratings in similar careers
| Career | Satisfaction | Avg Salary |
|---|---|---|
| Counselor | 3.5 | $47k |
| Health educator | 3.5 | $53k |
| School counselor | 3.5 | $55k |
| Recreational therapist | 3.4 | $50k |
| Drug & alcohol counselor | 3.3 | $32k |
| Marriage therapist | 3.2 | $50k |
| Mental health counselor | 3.1 | $36k |
| Rehabilitation counselor | 3.0 | $36k |
| School psychologist | 3.0 | $78k |
| Occupational therapist | 2.9 | $84k |
So what does it mean to be happy in your career? Let’s break it down into different dimensions:
- Salary: Are marriage therapists happy with their salary?
- Meaning: Do marriage therapists find their jobs meaningful?
- Personality fit: How well suited are people’s personalities to their everyday tasks as marriage therapists?
- Work environment: How enjoyable are marriage therapist’s work environments?
- Skills utilization: Are marriage therapists making the best use of their abilities?
Are marriage therapists happy with their salary?
Marriage therapists rated their satisfaction with their salaries 2.9/5. Marriage therapists tend to be quite unhappy with their salary, with very few reporting satisfaction with their pay.
We asked marriage therapists how fairly compensated they are for their work.
Their response was:
2.9 out of 5 stars
115 marriage therapists
17% of marriage therapists rated their compensation 5 stars
18% of marriage therapists rated their compensation 4 stars
21% of marriage therapists rated their compensation 3 stars
29% of marriage therapists rated their compensation 2 stars
16% of marriage therapists rated their compensation 1 stars
Do marriage therapists find their jobs meaningful?
On average, marriage therapists rate the meaningfulness of their work a 3.8/5. Unlike many careers, marriage therapists have little difficulty finding meaning in their work, and it likely constitutes one of the main reasons people become marriage therapists.
We asked marriage therapists how meaningful they found their work.
Their response was:
3.8 out of 5 stars
118 marriage therapists
33% of marriage therapists rated how meaningful they found their career 5 stars
32% of marriage therapists rated how meaningful they found their career 4 stars
20% of marriage therapists rated how meaningful they found their career 3 stars
7% of marriage therapists rated how meaningful they found their career 2 stars
8% of marriage therapists rated how meaningful they found their career 1 stars
How well are people’s personalities suited to everyday tasks as marriage therapists?
Marriage therapists rated their personality fit with their work an average of 4.0/5. The majority of marriage therapists find their personalities quite well suited to their work, with relatively few having complaints about their fit.
We asked marriage therapists how well their personalities fit into their careers.
Their response was:
4.0 out of 5 stars
127 marriage therapists
43% of marriage therapists rated their career fit 5 stars
31% of marriage therapists rated their career fit 4 stars
17% of marriage therapists rated their career fit 3 stars
6% of marriage therapists rated their career fit 2 stars
4% of marriage therapists rated their career fit 1 stars
How enjoyable is a marriage therapist’s work environment?
As a whole, marriage therapists rated their enjoyment of their work environment 3.6/5. A solid majority of marriage therapists enjoy their work environment, probably contributing to overall higher satisfaction with working as a marriage therapist.
We asked marriage therapists how much they enjoyed their work environment.
Their response was:
3.6 out of 5 stars
128 marriage therapists
24% of marriage therapists rated their work environment 5 stars
31% of marriage therapists rated their work environment 4 stars
31% of marriage therapists rated their work environment 3 stars
7% of marriage therapists rated their work environment 2 stars
6% of marriage therapists rated their work environment 1 stars
Are marriage therapists making the best use of their abilities?
Former marriage therapists on CareerExplorer have rated their skills utilization 3.8/5. Most marriage therapists surveyed find that they manage to use their abilities to their fullest as a marriage therapist, which helps contribute to higher career satisfaction in the long term.
We asked marriage therapists how well their abilities were used in their careers.
Their response was:
3.8 out of 5 stars
127 marriage therapists
34% of marriage therapists rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 5 stars
31% of marriage therapists rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 4 stars
18% of marriage therapists rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 3 stars
13% of marriage therapists rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 2 stars
3% of marriage therapists rated their how well their skills were utilized in their career 1 stars