Mine has his M.A. and I actually started working with him before he even got his M.A. He's a great therapist and has helped me a lot.
Personally, in my experience, in my country, non-academic professional training in therapy seems to be more effective in creating good therapists than PhD programs. One of my grad school professors (PhD) actually broke confidentiality at one time and did many other ethically unsound things in therapy and teaching. Not that I generalize - my supervisor is a PhD and she's a good professional.
Personally when I'm seeing a T I only care about his/her degrees as personal curiosity, but it's not what I'm looking for. I'd take open-mindedness, professionalism, and willingness to listen and learn over degrees anytime.