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Family specialist skills for your resume and career

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

Quoted experts

Adam Greer,

Dr. Tami James Moore

Below we've compiled a list of the most critical family specialist skills. We ranked the top skills for family specialists based on the percentage of resumes they appeared on. For example, 22.2% of family specialist resumes contained social work as a skill. Continue reading to find out what skills a family specialist needs to be successful in the workplace.

15 family specialist skills for your resume and career

2. Foster Care

Here's how family specialists use foster care:

Provide clinical intervention and supervision visitation between biological parents and their children who are currently placed in foster care.
Performed family and individual assessment and group counseling service for large comprehensive therapeutic foster care program.

3. Substance Abuse

Here's how family specialists use substance abuse:

Provided substance abuse counseling to families and monitored caseloads after completing intake assessments, screenings and enrolling families in treatment programs.
Provided families with therapy, substance abuse education, and appropriate referrals to supplement family recovery.

4. Crisis Intervention

Here's how family specialists use crisis intervention:

Provided behavior modification, counseling, and crisis intervention services to adolescents with mental illness in an intensive residential facility.
Provided immediate crisis intervention, referral services and non-clinical support to victims of sexual assault and domestic violence.

5. Child Abuse

When a child who is under 18 is mistreated by an adult, it is considered child abuse. There are many forms of intentional harm and mistreatment for example physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, medical abuse, and neglect in providing adequate basic life necessities.

Here's how family specialists use child abuse:

Court documentation* Drug and alcohol screening* Individual/Family counseling* Extensive case loads* Daily documentation* Marital counseling* Conflict resolution* Boundaries* Child Abuse education/reporting
Develop and publicize program info and special initiatives as Child Abuse/Spouse Maltreatment and risky behaviors.

6. Community Resources

Community resources are a set of resources that are used in the day to day life of people which improves their lifestyle in some way. People, sites or houses, and population assistance can come under the services offered by community resources.

Here's how family specialists use community resources:

Worked collaboratively with case workers on case plans and provided culturally acceptable community resources for families of diverse backgrounds.
Coordinated community resources to assist individuals in achieving vocational, educational, and recreational goals.

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8. Child Development

Here's how family specialists use child development:

Facilitated and provided training in the areas of child development, behavior modification and referral resources.
Facilitate parenting classes focused on behavior management, child development, and early intervention.

9. Family Support

Family support refers to assistance provided or offered to a family with a child, adult, or elderly person living in their home with a disability. However, family support may also be offered to families experiencing domestic issues, such as abusive parents or poor living conditions. Individual family support plans may be developed in order to help a family better understand how to reach a healthy family status.

Here's how family specialists use family support:

Collaborate with site coordinators to plan, organize and support Family Support Service Workshops and parent/community volunteers.
Work collaboratively with a team to develop individualized behavioral treatment plans and family support.

10. Family Therapy

Here's how family specialists use family therapy:

Facilitate individual/family therapy for 8-12 youth and their families helping to develop and establish communication/relational skills to progress towards reunification.
Completed a six-week comprehensive training program with an emphasis on emotion-focused and systems theory approaches to family therapy.

11. at-Risk Youth

A child who is unlikely to transition successfully into adulthood is considered an at-risk youth. Success can mean job readiness, academic success, or competence to be financially independent. It may also refer to the ability to avoid a life of crime by becoming a positive representative of society. At-risk students may show/have to show indifference for academics, low educational performance, absenteeism, disconnect from the school, emotional, and behavioral problems.

Here's how family specialists use at-risk youth:

Provide a structured living environment with detailed routines and specific expectations to accommodate behaviors of at-risk youth.
Coordinate and facilitate prevention programming for at-risk youth.

12. Family Engagement

Here's how family specialists use family engagement:

Utilized the consensus decision making conferencing model which emphasizes family engagement and consensus based decision making.
Planned, coordinated & facilitated activities and events to encourage family engagement and positive parenting practices.

13. Mental Health

Mental health is the state of wellbeing in which an individual can cope with the regular stresses and tensions of life, and can work productively without having any emotional or psychological breakdown. Mental health is essential for a person of any age and helps them make the right decisions in their life.

Here's how family specialists use mental health:

Provided rehabilitation services to children and helped develop treatment planning under the supervision of a licensed mental health clinician.
Ensured family and youth involvement in the development and implementation of programs directed towards families receiving mental health services.

14. Support Services

Support services are services that support the organization internally and are usually non-revenue generating. Examples include, IT, admin, HR, etc.

Here's how family specialists use support services:

Developed additional client support services related to specialized adjustment needs and the resettlement process.
Coordinate psychological/medical/volunteer/support services as well as home visits.

15. Domestic Violence

Domestic violence is a pattern of violent, intimidating, or abusive behavior in any relationship committed by someone within the victim's circle - partner, ex-partner, parents, family, and friends, to gain or maintain power and control over the victim. This can be emotional, sexual, social, financial, economic, psychological, spiritual, and/or physical abuse.

Here's how family specialists use domestic violence:

Coordinated and provided training for foster parents regarding the psychological aspects of sexual assault, domestic violence, and trauma clients.
Increase clients knowledge of Domestic Violence, the negative effect on them and their children, provide safety planning and resources.

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What skills help Family Specialists find jobs?

Tell us what job you are looking for, we’ll show you what skills employers want.

What skills stand out on family specialist resumes?

Adam Greer

Career Services Specialist, Auburn University

Clearly, the distance/online working skills will stand out with our HDFS majors. Our students have a strong foundation in learning to work with people, and now they have a new way to work with people and remove barriers that might have previously prevented an in-person meeting.

What soft skills should all family specialists possess?

Dr. Tami James Moore

Professor of Family Science, University of Nebraska at Kearney

Problem-solving is one of the most important soft skills in this profession. Clients are usually facing some financial problems before they seek help, so the professional will need to be able to analyze the client's current situation, explore the causes of the situation, and come up with possible solutions. Relational/interpersonal skills, especially empathy and a nonjudgmental attitude, often determine the success or failure of family case management. Professionals must avoid imposing their own perception of needs and their own values onto their client's situations. This is very difficult for new professionals, but with education and guidance, that can be overcome. The ability to be a team player is also essential to success. Individuals and families will accept and implement suggested strategies much more quickly and consistently if they feel that the professional has their best interest at the center of suggested plans.

What family specialist skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?

Jennifer Randles Ph.D.

Chair and Associate Professor, California State University, Fresno

If students need to take a gap year, I recommend enhancing their research, writing, and critical thinking skills in the interim. These skills are beneficial for any employment field, especially for those who ultimately plan to pursue graduate school in sociology.

What type of skills will young family specialists need?

Dr. Joslyn Armstrong Ph.D.

Assistant Professor, Lewis and Clark College

Recent graduates in the mental health counseling field will need to clinically work with diverse families such as racial-ethnic families and LGBT+ and queer families. Our world is becoming more varied, and clinicians see rising numbers of racially and ethnically diverse clients or sexual and gender minorities. Thus, beginning mental health professionals will need to have experienced clinically working with various families. An essential skill that mental health professionals will need is to approach clinical work from a relational and systemic perspective. Being a marriage and family therapist (MFT), MFT graduates are trained from a relational and systemic lens.

I believe having a relational and systemic theoretical framework is a strength for MFTs to work with multiple persons and from a family perspective. Additionally, graduates will need to be proficient in working with significant mental health diagnoses and be informed on clients' DSM criteria. Finally, in the context of COVID, teletherapy has been influential within our field. All mental health programs have implemented clinical training that encompasses teaching or clinical cases involving teletherapy. Thus, master's level graduates in the mental health counseling field will need skills related to practicing and implementing teletherapy in their clinical practice. Also, within the context of COVID, graduates will need to have flexibility and adaptability in their therapeutic services.

What hard/technical skills are most important for family specialists?

Michelle Kelley Shuler Ph.D.

Department Chair: Human Services, Austin Community College

a. Must have strong basic computer skills and knowledge of software such as excel spreadsheets, google docs, etc. Most, if not all, agencies use electronic health records and treatment planning, so it is necessary to be competent in this area.
b. A degree and additional certifications will assist you in seeking employment. It will also increase your level of competency and diversify the communities you serve. For example, at Austin Community College, we offer our students a chance to complete a certification in Mental Health First Aid Training. This increases their marketability and skill level.

Do you want to know more?

List of family specialist skills to add to your resume

The most important skills for a family specialist resume and required skills for a family specialist to have include:

Social Work
Foster Care
Substance Abuse
Crisis Intervention
Child Abuse
Community Resources
Social Services
Child Development
Family Support
Family Therapy
at-Risk Youth
Family Engagement
Mental Health
Support Services
Domestic Violence
Direct Services

Community Agencies
Conflict Resolution
Child Protective
DHS
Community Services
Court Hearings
Child Care
Family Assessments
Crisis Management
Wraparound
Mac OS X
Family Preservation
CFT
Home Management
Medicaid
Independent Living

Troubleshoot
Psychosocial Assessments
Foster Children
DCFS
Discharge Planning
Apple Products
Community Organizations
CPS
Financial Assistance
Family Court
Court Reports
Parent Support
In-Home Services
Child Safety
Anger Management
Genius

Updated January 8, 2025

Zippia Team

Editorial Staff

The Zippia Research Team has spent countless hours reviewing resumes, job postings, and government data to determine what goes into getting a job in each phase of life. Professional writers and data scientists comprise the Zippia Research Team.

Updated January 8, 2025

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