Marriage Counsellor job roles, responsibilities, descriptions, duties and salary

Date of posting: 04 Aug 21

What Does a Marriage Counsellor Do?

Learn about the key requirements, duties, responsibilities, salaries and required skills that should be in a job description.


Job designation: - Marriage Counsellor

A marriage counsellor’s duty is to engage with people who are married or about to get married in the future, to help resolve issues in their lives. They are mostly neutral towards couples and avoid taking sides so as not to cause any form of partiality or unfairness. 

Duties and responsibilities of a Marriage Counsellor

A marriage counsellor’s responsibility is extremely high because dealing with people’s life is not an easy task. Without taking any sides, they are bound to help couples bring an end to ongoing issues or marital problems between a pair of individuals. They offer very less or rather zero opinions about who is right or wrong but create a solution to settle down matters quickly.

  • Counsel married couples on their marital life

  • Find out the causes of a specific problem in a couple’s marriage

  • Try to resolve minor issues to major issues between married couples

  • Advice married couples to be with each other and spend time together

  • Counselling couples to keep their marriage fulfilling and rock-solid.

  • Diagnosing the root cause behind the issues of married couples

  • Researching on mental disorders caused by distancing between couples

  • Coming up with practical solutions to solve issues between married/unmarried couples

  • Creating short-term resolutions for problematic couples

  • Researching on modern problems happening in married lives

Places of employment for a Marriage Counsellor

  • Courts at district level, state level and central level

  • NGOs (Non-government organization)

  • Hospital and clinics (both government and private)

  • Psychiatric care centres (both government and private)

  • Community centres in various localities

  • Counselling organizations (both government and private)

  • Rehabilitation and recovery centres (both government and private)

Work schedule of a Marriage Counsellor

Generally, a marriage counsellor’s duty hours are from 9AM to 5PM or 40 hours per week. Some even have their own practising chamber and even attend clients on weekends or on evenings as well.


Qualifications required to become a Marriage Counsellor


A degree in psychology or social sciences is required to become a marriage counsellor and for higher posts and income, a post graduate or master’s degree is required alongside with relevant work experience because this job is almost the equivalent or similar to a psychologist. In some cases, a license from the Rehabilitation Council of India is mandatory to start practice marriage counselling on a clinical or a therapeutic level. 


Under-graduate courses to become a Marriage Counsellor



Eligibility to pursue the course: -


  • Any stream with 50 to 60 percent in Class 12th exams from a recognised board (Science mostly preferred with PCB)

  • Merit-based admission or entrance exams as per some institutes


Entrance-exams to be taken to pursue the course


  • DUET (Delhi University Entrance Test)

  • JMI Entrance Exam (Jamia Millia Islamia)

  • BHU ET (Banaras Hindu University Entrance Test)

  • MU-OET (Manipal University Online Entrance Test)

  • CUCET (Central University Common Entrance Test)

  • JUET (Jammu University Entrance Test)

  • GSAT (GITAM Science Admission Test)

  • MET (Manipal Entrance Test)

  • SAAT (Siksha “O” Anusandhan Admission Test)


Institutes which are offering these courses 


  • Lady Shri Ram College for Women, New Delhi

  • Gargi College, New Delhi

  • Ferguson College, Pune (Maharashtra)

  • Indraprastha College for Women (Delhi)

  • Kamala Nehru College (Delhi)

  • St Xavier’s College, Ahmedabad (Gujarat)

  • Loreto College, Kolkata (West Bengal)

  • Bethune College, Kolkata (West Bengal)

  • St Xavier’s College, Mumbai (Maharashtra)

  • D.A.V. (Dayanand Anglo Vedic) College, Chandigarh

  • Presidency College, Chennai (Tamil Nadu)

  • Christ University, Bangalore (Karnataka)


Post-graduate courses for a Marriage Counsellor


Eligibility to pursue the course: -


  • 50% to 60% during graduation with any stream (science mostly preferred)

  • Merit-based admission or entrance exams as per some institutes

  • Internships and dissertation work is necessary to earn the degree


Entrance-exams to be taken to pursue the course


  • TISSNET (TATA Institute of Social Sciences National Entrance Test)

  • DUET (Delhi University Entrance Test)

  • BHU PET (Banaras Hindu University Postgraduate Entrance Test)

  • JNUEE (Jawaharlal Nehru University Entrance Exam)

  • OUCET (Osmania University Common Entrance Test)

  • IPU CET (Indra Prastha University Common Entrance Test)

  • BITSAT (Birla Institute of Science and Technology Admission Test)


Institutes which are offering these courses 


  • Delhi University, Delhi

  • JMI (Jamia Millia Islamia),Delhi

  • Osmania University, Hyderabad (Telangana)

  • Punjab University, Patiala (Punjab)

  • IGNOU (Indira Gandhi National Open University),Delhi

  • BHU (Banaras Hindu University),Varanasi (Uttar Pradesh)

  • Calcutta University, Kolkata (West Bengal)

Key/Technical skills

  • Empathic towards the marital problems of couples

  • Neutral, fair and unbiased counselling on marital issues

  • Effective communication for impartial judgement

  • Clear judgement without taking sides

  • Convincing couples to resolve issues as soon as possible

  • Being friendly and professional at the same time

Salary expectations

  • Average salary: - Rs. 5.8 lakhs to Rs. 6 lakhs per annum

  • Entry level salary (less than 1 or 3 years of work experience): - Rs. 4 lakhs per annum

  • Experienced-level salary (more than 8 to 20 years of work experience): - Rs. 7 lakhs per annum or above


Process of getting the job of a Marriage Counsellor

There are numerous ways of getting a job as a marriage counsellor

  • Placement from colleges, universities and other recognised institutions

  • Job searching on LinkedIn or Indeed for marriage counsellor posts

  • Checking out any medical institution’s profile and requirements for a marriage counsellor 

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