Marriage and family therapists are trained in various models of therapy in order to prepare them for work with families, couples, individuals, and larger human systems. Marriage and family therapy differs from the other approaches to mental health by thinking about people as being part of a larger system, such as their family. It is an interpersonal approach to psychotherapy, focusing on working with the relationships between members of a system. (For this reason some have suggested that more appropriate terms to describe this approach might be "relationship therapy" or "systemic therapy.") Other approaches to psychotherapy are traditionally intrapersonal, focusing on working with the internal processes (usually, a specific structural deficit) of an individual.

While some practitioners of the other approaches to psychotherapy may also incorporate some interpersonal techniques into their work, only an AAMFT Clinical Member is required to have had extensive specialized training and supervision in such an approach and to think in systemic terms. AAMFT Clinical members also observe a strict code of ethics which take family issues into consideration.

The systemic orientation and relational ethic, coupled with the rigorous training requirements, make those licensed marriage and family therapists who are also AAMFT Clinical Members uniquely qualified to provide mental health services.