I learned early in my career that families don’t experience mental health needs neatly within state lines. As a clinician, supervisor, and systems leader working across Ohio, Arizona, and Nevada, I’ve watched care get delayed, not because help wasn’t available, but because qualified Marriage and Family Therapists (MFTs) were stalled by a patchwork of licensure rules. Enhanced portability isn’t a convenience; it’s a lifeline for families and a stabilizer for our workforce. 
Portability directly addresses workforce shortages by allowing experienced MFTs to go where need is greatest, rural and frontier counties, forensic hospital step-down units, adult and juvenile justice settings, state government agencies, and under-resourced community programs. It shortens hiring timelines, reduces vacancy churn, and helps organizations keep evidence-based services running. For clients, portability means continuity: fewer handoffs, faster access to care, and the ability to maintain therapeutic relationships when life changes, college, military orders, or a move for safer housing, pull them across borders.
Portability also lowers barriers for diverse, bilingual, and specialty-trained clinicians who often serve the highest-need populations. When we reduce redundant paperwork and duplicative fees, we free MFTs to do what they’re trained to do: deliver trauma-informed, family-centered care. Finally, portability strengthens our profession’s growth. It aligns MFT credentialing with modern health systems, enables interstate supervision and training pipelines, and signals to payers and partners that MFTs are a flexible, scalable solution to America’s behavioral health crisis.
Families deserve timely, systemic care. MFTs are ready. Licensure portability ensures the right therapist can meet the right family at the right time, no matter which side of a state line they live on.
Dr. Domonique Rice, IMFT-S, is a national nonprofit leader and AAMFT-Approved Supervisor whose work spans clinical practice, statewide systems, and workforce development to expand trauma-informed, family-centered care. She is the Founder/Executive Director of Hope, Love, and Dream, Inc., and serves as a Director at the National Council for Mental Wellbeing Practice Improvement and Consulting, advancing equitable access for system-impacted individuals, youth, and families.
For more information on licensure portability and the AAMFT-led Access MFTs efforts to overcome barriers, visit https://www.accessmfts.org.
