All two of Tennessee's accredited master's MFT programs are ranked below, not just the ones with results to show. One score covers all of them, combining published outcomes with disclosure and accreditation standing.
Every accredited master's MFT program in Tennessee, ranked
All 2 of Tennessee’s accredited master's MFT programs carry a score out of 100. Two publish nothing, so they forfeit the 60 points for results and cannot pass 40. That is a statement about disclosure, not about teaching.
- #1
Lipscomb University (MMFT)
Nashville, TN
20.7
program score
Campus-basedMaster'sWhere it leads in Tennessee
Tennessee sits in the upper quarter of states for how much of this work it carries, at a median of $46,700. Ten per cent earn under $34,690 and ten per cent over $63,540, a spread driven more by whether you are salaried or in practice than by years served.
What to know about it
Lipscomb University runs this degree from Nashville, TN. Coursework named on its own page covers play therapy and medical family therapy. Worth asking early about the assistantships and tuition remission it advertises, rather than waiting for an offer. Ask this accredited program for the numbers it has not posted, specifically graduation and licensure across recent cohorts. A program that has them will send them, and one that hesitates has told you something. Concentrations run to play and expressive therapies and medical and healthcare settings. Teaching is scheduled in the evenings, which matters if you are keeping a job. Three completed cohorts is a thin record, so ask what the years still in progress look like.
Why it sits here 20.7 of 100. The program forfeits the 60 points attached to published results by not publishing any, and keeps what transparency and standing earn it.
Lipscomb University program page The address COAMFTE lists for its outcome data
Score breakdown
- Outcomes 0/60no completed-cohort outcomes published
- Transparency 7.5/25publishes a document with no cohort table in it
- Standing 13.2/15accredited without conditions, current term runs to 2030-11
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- #2
Lee University (MS)
Cleveland, TN
20
program score
Campus-basedMaster'sWhere it leads in Tennessee
The market here is better supplied than the median state, at a median wage of $46,700. The range behind that runs from about $34,690 to $63,540, and where you land in it is mostly a question of setting rather than of seniority.
What to know about it
Lee University runs this degree from Cleveland, TN. No licensure rate is published, which is true of every program on this page, so the score rests on graduation and placement alone. With no published outcomes to read, the questions to put to this accredited program directly are its graduation rate for the last three cohorts, how many of those graduates are licensed, and why the figures are not on its site. Next accreditation review falls in 2029. Three completed cohorts is a thin record, so ask what the years still in progress look like.
Why it sits here 20 of 100. The program forfeits the 60 points attached to published results by not publishing any, and keeps what transparency and standing earn it.
Lee University program page The address COAMFTE lists for its outcome data
Score breakdown
- Outcomes 0/60no completed-cohort outcomes published
- Transparency 7.5/25publishes a document with no cohort table in it
- Standing 12.5/15accredited without conditions, current term runs to 2029-05
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How is this ranking of Tennessee MFT programs ordered?
This ranking of Tennessee MFT programs is ordered on transparency and standing alone, because no accredited master's program in the state has published completed-cohort results and none of the scores below clears 40. 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).
The 60 points for results are not redistributed when a program publishes none. Sharing them out would score a silent program on standing alone, and since nearly every program is in good standing it would finish near the top, which would mean rewarding programs for telling you less.
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.
What do marriage and family therapists earn in Tennessee?
Marriage and family therapists in Tennessee earn a median of $46,700, against $66,940 nationally, on Bureau of Labor Statistics figures for May 2025. That is $20,240 below the national figure , and 42th highest of the 45 states that publish one. The range runs from about $34,690 at the tenth percentile to $63,540 at the ninetieth.
The state employs 1,440 of them, which is 1.02 times the national rate per head of population. A base of that size means the median above is a market rate, not an artefact of two or three large employers. The salary page puts Tennessee against the other states and against each work setting.
How do you get licensed as an MFT in Tennessee?
You get licensed as an MFT in Tennessee by earning a qualifying master's degree first, and the two accredited programs above are the in-state ways to get one. Beyond the degree, Tennessee's specific requirements for supervised hours and coursework belong to its state licensing board, and repeating them here would mean publishing numbers that go out of date quietly and are acted on expensively.
A state board treats an accredited MFT degree as settled, which is the practical argument for insisting on one and the reason this page lists only accredited master's programs. Where you accrue your supervised hours matters more than it looks, because they are counted by the board that will license you and moving mid-route can mean recounting them.
Ask the Tennessee 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 Tennessee by city
One city in Tennessee 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 Tennessee does not have what you want?
Where else you can study matters more in Tennessee than in most states: a two-program offering means most people weighing this decision are weighing somewhere else too, which is the shape of a small field rather than a failure of the state.
The nearest alternatives with accredited master's MFT programs are Alabama (two), Florida (two), Georgia (four). 17 states have no accredited programs at this level at all, which is the gap the accredited distance programs exist to fill.
The distance master's ranking lists the programs open to you wherever in Tennessee you live.
Widen it further and the national ranking covers all 59 programs with a publishable record.
Cities near Tennessee with their own page
These sit elsewhere in the south, and each has a page covering the programs based there and what the job pays in that metropolitan area rather than statewide.
Common questions about MFT programs in Tennessee
How many accredited master's MFT programs are in Tennessee?
Can you get licensed as an MFT in Tennessee with an online degree?
What do marriage and family therapists earn in Tennessee?
Should you study in Tennessee or move for a program?
Where do these figures come from?
These figures come from the bodies that publish them. COAMFTE says what is accredited in Tennessee, each program reports its own graduate outcomes, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports the pay.
- COAMFTE Directory of Accredited Programs Accredited programs in Tennessee, their level, city and status. Read 2026-08-21.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics May 2025 release, SOC 21-1013, all Tennessee postholders.
- Ranking methodology The three factors, their weights, and the eligibility floor.