Therapist Salary in Indiana: Counselors, MFTs and Social Workers

All three Indiana medians sit below their national figures, but the distances differ sharply.

The counselor median of $53,760 is 9% below the national $59,350; the family therapist median of $56,810 is 15% below the national $66,940; the social worker median of $48,300 is 20% below the national $60,280.

The gaps between the occupations move too.

Nationally the family therapist premium over counselors is $7,590 at the median; in Indiana it holds at $3,050, less than half its national size.

Nationally the social worker median of $60,280 edges the counselor median by $930; in Indiana counselors lead social workers by $5,460, so the national order at the middle flips.

No single Indiana figure could describe all three rows, which is why this page shows each against its own national occupation.

Counselors are a combined occupation — the row pools mental health counselors with substance abuse and behavioral disorder counselors — and in Indiana it sits below the national distribution at every published percentile.

The 10th percentile of $37,580 is 3% below the national figure, the closest of the five; the 25th percentile of $42,210 is 10% below; the median of $53,760 is 9% below, the 75th percentile of $66,340 is 13% below and the 90th percentile of $83,200 is 15% below.

The row is closest to national at the floor and furthest at the ceiling, though not evenly: the 25th percentile's 10% gap is a little wider than the median's 9%.

The middle half spans $24,130, narrower than the national band of $29,430.

With an estimated 11,890 counselors employed, Indiana ranks 13th of the 50 jurisdictions that publish an employment estimate for this occupation.

For someone weighing a counselor offer, the Indiana median is a lower benchmark than the national one, and the state ceiling is lower still.

The Indiana family therapist distribution starts above national and falls further behind at every step up.

The 10th percentile of $46,730 is 5% above the national figure — the only state figure on this page above a national counterpart.

The 25th percentile of $48,340 is 3% below, the median of $56,810 is 15% below the national $66,940, the 75th percentile of $71,680 is 24% below, and the 90th percentile of $82,430 is 33% below the national $123,730, a gap of $41,300 at the ceiling.

The national distribution is far wider: its 10th-to-90th span is $79,080 against Indiana's $35,700, and its middle half spans $43,770 against $23,340.

BLS estimates 510 family therapists employed in Indiana, the smallest count of the three occupations, ranking Indiana 17th of the 40 jurisdictions with a published employment estimate.

OEWS does not say why the shape differs, and this page does not guess.

Mental health and substance abuse social workers have the lowest Indiana median of the three occupations, $48,300, 20% below the national $60,280.

The floor sits closer to national than the middle does: the 10th percentile of $36,290 is 9% below the national figure and the 25th percentile of $42,580 is 10% below, while the 75th percentile of $64,610 is 19% below and the 90th percentile of $77,780 is 25% below the national $104,170.

The middle half spans $22,030 against a national band of $32,660, so Indiana pay in this occupation sits in a narrower range.

BLS estimates 2,490 employed, ranking Indiana 15th of the 50 jurisdictions that publish an employment estimate for this occupation.

The $48,300 median is not a licence figure either: an LCSW is counted in this row or in healthcare social work depending on the setting, so the row never describes every LCSW.

Start with the occupation the job would be counted in, and read the offer against that row rather than a blended number.

The Indiana hourly medians are $25.85 for counselors, $27.31 for family therapists and $23.22 for social workers — the family therapist figure is the highest of the three even though the occupation has the smallest headcount.

A counselor offer at the Indiana median of $53,760 sits $3,050 below the family therapist median and $5,460 above the social worker median.

An hourly posting at $23.22, the social worker figure, sits below the other two hourly medians, while one at $27.31 sits above the other two.

A percentile is a position in the state's distribution, not a pay step, so an offer at the 25th percentile says where it sits among Indiana jobs in that occupation, not a judgement about the person hired.

None of the three rows is a licence figure.

The counselor row pools LMHCs and LMHCAs — Indiana's licensed mental health counselors, with an associate licence tier — together with substance abuse and behavioral disorder counselors, and BLS publishes no LMHC-only median for Indiana.

The family therapist row is the closest to a single licence, an occupation of its own for marriage and family therapists, whom Indiana licenses as the LMFT with an LMFTA associate tier, but OEWS does not split it by licence stage, so it cannot say what an LMFTA earns.

The social worker row is a setting count, not a licence count: an LCSW is counted in this row or in healthcare social work depending on the setting, and the row cannot say what an LSW earns either.

The licensure pages for each Indiana licence are linked below.