The idea for establishing an honor society for marriage and family therapy was proposed by Dr. Charles L. Cole, while serving as the Spyker Endowed Chair in Marriage and Family Therapy at The University of Louisiana at Monroe from 1997 to 2003. Dr. Cole initiated a series of conversations with leaders in the marriage and family therapy field in 1997 to discuss the possibilities of establishing a marriage and family therapy honor society. Many established marriage and family therapy scholars and practitioners participated in these dialogues. Dr. Bill Nichols and Dr. Charles Figley were particularly influential in shaping Dr. Cole's formative ideas. Dr. Cole sought the counsel of Dr. Nichols because of his wealth of experience as a past president of both the American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy and the International Family Therapy Association in addition to being the founding editor of the Journal of Marital and Family Therapy. Dr. Nichols helped to clarify how an honor society might fit into the larger structure of the profession and the contributions that an honor society could uniquely make. Dr.  Figley's counsel was sought because he has founded several innovative organizations related to family therapy and mental health. Dr. Figley helped Dr. Cole envision how an honor society could be organized and interface with existing marriage and family therapy related organizations that might complement them in new ways and thus further the development of the field of marriage and family therapy. Both Dr. Nichols and Dr. Figley offered suggestions on how to organize and establish the initial Board of Directors.

In December 1997, Dr. Charles Cole was selected to serve as the first president. The Board went through several transitions in the initial phases moving from a tentative exploratory committee to a working board. Many discussions ensued regarding the makeup of the board and scope of the honor society. Discussions were held regarding options to get scholars and practitioners from countries outside the United States involved. These discussions continue to be the focus among the leadership.

 In 2010, Dr. Michelle Robertson assume the ownership and president of Delta Kappa upon Dr. Cole's retirement. Dr. Robertson, a graduate of both Abilene Christian University and The University of Louisiana at Monroe, is a tenured professor at Friends University in Wichita, Kansas.

The move toward the formation and diffusion of the core of the idea for the honor society took a giant step when it was decided that chapters would be formed and organized in COAMFTE accredited training programs. This provided a vehicle to get local and regional areas actively involved in carrying out one of the major missions of Delta Kappa by creating structures to recruit and train future generations of MFT leaders. It was for this reason that the officers serving at the collegiate chapter level include the offices of president, executive vice president, membership vice president, program vice president, secretary, treasurer, and historian in addition to a faculty sponsor for the chapter. The idea is to facilitate as many leadership opportunities for the members at the local level as possible so that they may assume greater responsibilities at the state, regional, national, and international level throughout their careers as marriage and family therapists.