How do you become a family therapist in Australia?

The usual pathway is a qualification in a helping profession such as social work, psychology, counselling, psychotherapy or occupational therapy, followed by a postgraduate qualification in family therapy or systemic practice, a period of supervised clinical practice, and membership of a professional body such as AAFT or PACFA. Requirements change, so confirm current specifics with the relevant body.

Is family therapist a protected title in Australia?

There is no single licensing body for family therapy in Australia and the title is not legally protected. In practice, recognition from bodies such as the Australian Association of Family Therapy or PACFA is what employers look for, and describing yourself as a family therapist without recognised training is unlikely to withstand scrutiny.

Do I need a masters degree to practise family therapy?

The recognised route is a postgraduate qualification specifically in family therapy or systemic practice, commonly a graduate diploma or masters. You can, however, begin working systemically within your existing profession well before completing one, which is what most practitioners who attend short foundation courses do.

Is a two-day family therapy course worth doing?

A two-day course will not make you a family therapist. It is a reasonable way to find out whether systemic thinking fits how you already see your cases before committing to a postgraduate qualification, and it provides techniques you can use immediately regardless of what you decide afterwards.

Career pathways

How to become a family therapist in Australia

Q: Does AkindaCo take students on clinical placement?

Yes. AkindaCo takes students from the University of Adelaide, IKON Institute and some interstate providers including the University of Melbourne. Students are asked to stay for the whole year and to specialise either in working with children and young people or in working with adults. Placements for professionals interested in positive behaviour support begin next year. Applications go to hello@akindaco.com with a CV and expression of interest.

By the AkindaCo education team · Adelaide, South Australia

There is no single licensing body for family therapy in Australia and no one legally protected title, which is genuinely confusing when you are trying to work out where to start. What exists instead is a well-worn pathway, and a set of professional bodies whose recognition employers actually look for.

This is the shape of it. Because requirements change, treat every specific as something to confirm with the relevant body rather than as settled fact.

Step 1: a qualification in a helping profession

Almost everyone arrives at family therapy from somewhere else. The usual starting points are social work, psychology, counselling, psychotherapy, occupational therapy, nursing or mental health nursing. Family therapy is generally treated as a specialisation you add rather than a career you start from scratch.

This is why our own training rooms are so mixed. On any given course we have counsellors, psychologists, social workers, occupational therapists, school wellbeing leaders and child protection workers sitting together.

Step 2: postgraduate training in family and systemic therapy

The recognised route is a postgraduate qualification specifically in family therapy or systemic practice. In Australia these are commonly offered as a graduate diploma or a master's degree, sometimes titled Clinical Family Therapy or Family Therapy and Systemic Practice.

Programs vary in length, structure and entry requirements, and the list of providers changes. The Australian Association of Family Therapy is the sensible place to check what is currently recognised.

Step 3: supervised clinical practice

You cannot read your way into this. Systemic practice is a skill learned under supervision, with someone watching your work and asking you why you did that.

Expect a required number of supervised client hours and a required number of supervision hours, with the specifics set by whichever body you are seeking recognition from. Supervision with a supervisor who is themselves systemically trained matters more than the raw hour count.

Step 4: professional membership and recognition

Two bodies matter most in this space:

AAFT, the Australian Association of Family Therapy, which offers general and clinical membership categories.
PACFA, the Psychotherapy and Counselling Federation of Australia, which registers counsellors and psychotherapists and has a college structure covering relationship and family work.

If you are a social worker you will also hold AASW membership, and psychologists sit under AHPRA registration. None of these replace each other. Check the current criteria directly with each body, because membership categories and their requirements are revised periodically.

Step 5: continuing professional development, permanently

Recognition is not a finish line. Every one of these bodies requires ongoing CPD, and systemic practice in particular keeps moving.

Where short foundation training fits

Here is the part people rarely say out loud: a postgraduate family therapy qualification is a significant commitment of time and money, and plenty of practitioners are not sure whether systemic work is for them.

A short foundation course is a reasonable way to find out. Two days will not make you a family therapist. It will tell you whether the way of thinking fits how you already see your cases, and it will give you techniques you can use immediately regardless of what you decide afterwards.

AkindaCo runs Family Therapy Foundations, a two-day PACFA-endorsed intensive in North Adelaide. It assumes no prior systemic training, and it is deliberately practical: reading a family system, drawing a genogram live in the room, using circular questions, holding a session with several people in it, and noticing when your own history is shaping what you are seeing.

Many of the people who come to it are exactly at this decision point.

Clinical placements

If you are currently studying, placement is where the learning actually consolidates. AkindaCo takes students on clinical placement from the University of Adelaide, IKON Institute and some interstate providers including the University of Melbourne. We ask students to stay for the whole year and to specialise, either in working with children and young people or in working with adults. From next year we will also offer placements for professionals interested in positive behaviour support.

To apply, email your CV and an expression of interest to hello@akindaco.com.

A note on the shortcut question

People sometimes ask whether they can call themselves a family therapist without the postgraduate qualification. Technically the title is not protected. Practically, describing yourself that way without recognised training will not survive contact with an employer, a professional body complaint, or a report that gets scrutinised.

The more useful framing is that you can work systemically long before you are a family therapist, and most of the practitioners we train do exactly that.

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