Doctoral MFT Programs in Michigan (2026)

How is this ranking of Michigan MFT programs ordered?

This ranking is ordered by score, and Michigan is in the minority of states where every accredited doctoral program has published something, so no program here is scored on standing alone. Every program is marked out of 100 on the same three things: what its graduates achieved (60 points), whether it published that at the address the accreditor lists (25), and the standing of its accreditation (15).

A low score here is a statement about disclosure, not a measurement of teaching. A program that has published no graduation rate is given none, no estimate and nothing borrowed from a peer, and its card says so in those words. Publishing the data is a condition of accreditation, so what is being marked down is a requirement the program agreed to and has not met.

Weights, thresholds and what the score deliberately leaves out are on the methodology page.

Does a doctorate change what you earn in Michigan?

Whether a doctorate changes what you earn in Michigan is not something any published pay figure answers. Everyone holding the license is counted under one occupation code, which means the state median covers both levels at once.

The return on a doctorate shows up in which jobs you can hold, not in what an hour of therapy pays. Teaching, research and supervision roles ask for it; a private caseload does not.

The state's own figures, the median, the percentile range and the employment count, are set out alongside the salary page, and the salary page compares every state and setting.

How do you get licensed as an MFT in Michigan?

To get licensed as an MFT in Michigan you need a qualifying doctorate before anything else, and with one accredited program in the state that step is the one most likely to involve looking beyond it. The rest of the route, hours and examination and the paperwork around them, is defined by the Michigan state board rather than by the accreditor, and this page sends you there rather than paraphrasing rules that move.

Accreditation is what shortens that conversation with the state board: all of the accredited programs on this page hold COAMFTE accreditation, and a state board generally accepts an accredited MFT degree without auditing it course by course. Worth weighing alongside it: Michigan carries fewer of these jobs per head than the country as a whole, at 0.31 times the national rate, so ask the programs above where their graduates actually end up.

Ask the Michigan state board two things in writing: what it counts as a qualifying degree, and how it treats supervised hours accrued out of state. Those answers shape the choice between accredited programs more than any brochure will.

Both halves of that are covered elsewhere: the route on the career page, the scoring on the methodology page.

MFT programs in Michigan by city

One city in Michigan has a page of its own, covering the programs based there and what the license pays in that metropolitan area. Programs in the rest of the state are on this page and nowhere else.

Where else can you study if Michigan does not have what you want?

If Michigan does not have what you want, looking outward is the normal case here rather than a fallback, because the state holds one accredited program.

The nearest alternatives with accredited doctoral MFT programs are Illinois (one), Kansas (one), Minnesota (one). 34 states have no accredited programs at this level at all, which is the gap the accredited distance programs exist to fill.

The online and hybrid doctoral ranking covers what you can study from Michigan without moving.

To see Michigan's programs against the other 18 scored nationally, the national ranking puts them in one order.