The Upper Peninsula has 16 marriage and family therapists on record for 303,392 residents, and 8 of its 15 counties have none

Imagine a couple in Menominee who have been circling the same argument since the kids left home. They agree to try counseling, then look at the map: no marriage and family therapist lists a practice in their county, and the next options are a long drive away on winter roads. For many Upper Peninsula families, finding relational help has always meant planning around distance. We looked at all 15 UP counties to measure it.

16 marriage and family therapists on record for 303,392 Upper Peninsula residents

Across the Upper Peninsula there are 16 individual NPI records for marriage and family therapists (MFTs) with a practice location, serving a population of 303,392. That is about 0.53 per 10,000 residents, below Michigan’s 0.72. Eight of the 15 counties, with 91,302 residents combined, have none: Alger, Dickinson, Keweenaw, Luce, Mackinac, Menominee, Ontonagon and Schoolcraft.

The counties that do have MFTs mostly have one to four. Marquette‘s county, the UP’s largest at 67,112 people, has four (0.60 per 10,000). Houghton has four (1.06), Chippewa, home to Sault Ste. Marie, has three (0.83), and Delta, home to Escanaba, has two (0.54). Baraga, Gogebic and Iron each have one.

What the UP data shows: small numbers, older counties, wide shortage designations

Small counts make rates jumpy. Baraga County has the highest UP rate, 1.22 per 10,000, which is a single therapist in a county of 8,191 people. Seven of the 15 counties have between one and four records; any one change matters.

The federal shortage map covers almost the whole region. Fourteen of 15 UP counties have a current mental health Health Professional Shortage Area (HPSA) designation from HRSA, 13 of them geographic, meaning the whole area is short of core mental health professionals. Chippewa’s designation covers a population group. Scores range from 11 in Ontonagon to 17 in Houghton, Chippewa and Keweenaw, on a scale where 25 is the most severe. Marquette County shows none because its only record in the file is a low-income designation proposed for withdrawal. Our shortage areas report explains the types and scores.

The UP is also older than the state. Thirteen of 15 counties have a median age above Michigan’s 40.2, from Ontonagon (59.8) and Keweenaw (57.1) to Iron (53.1) and Mackinac (53.0). Houghton (32.2) and Marquette (39.3), both university counties, are the exceptions. Married shares are high in several older counties, such as Keweenaw (59.6% of adults 15 and older) and Ontonagon (58.2%), against 47.6% statewide, while Luce has a divorced share of 16.8%, well above Michigan’s 11.4%. For relationships, that often means long marriages, adult children far away, caregiving and grief, all of which families sometimes want support with.

Marriage and family therapists across the 15 Upper Peninsula counties

Methodology for the Upper Peninsula profile

The region is Michigan’s 15 UP counties. Therapist counts are individual records in the CMS NPPES registry with taxonomy 106H00000X (Marriage & Family Therapist), retrieved October 8, 2026, placed in a county by the centroid of the practice ZIP code (Census 2023 ZCTA Gazetteer). The regional rate is our arithmetic: 16 divided by 303,392, times 10,000, which rounds to 0.53. Populations, median age and marital status come from the American Community Survey 2020-2024 5-year estimates (table B12001 for marital status, adults 15 and older). Shortage designations and scores come from HRSA’s mental health HPSA detail file, retrieved the same day, counting only “Designated” records.

Limitations for a rural region

• With counts this small, a single new or departing therapist changes a county’s rate dramatically.
• ACS estimates for counties as small as Keweenaw (2,133 people) carry wide margins of error.
• Counselors, social workers, psychologists and community mental health agencies serve many UP families and are not counted here.
• NPI records do not prove active licensure, and they miss therapists who bill only under an organization’s number.

What this means for Upper Peninsula couples and families

None of these numbers say that UP families need therapy more than anyone else, or that relationships there are struggling. They say that getting to a marriage and family therapist’s office can take real planning, especially in winter.

Video sessions can widen the choice without the drive. Because Michigan licensure follows where the client is located, a therapist licensed in Michigan can meet with you anywhere in the state, including the UP, as long as you are physically in Michigan during each session. That rule also matters near the border: a session from a Wisconsin workplace across the river from Menominee would generally fall outside a Michigan license. Online care also needs a private space and a dependable connection, which is not a given everywhere in the region.

Iryna Morhunova-Sutton, LLMFT, meets with individuals, couples and families online only, for clients anywhere in Michigan. Learn how online therapy in Michigan works, or compare the UP with the rest of the state in our county density ranking and our list of counties without an MFT.

Update schedule

Therapist and shortage data are refreshed quarterly; population and household figures update with each ACS 5-year release.