What is a Behavior Therapist?

A Behavior Therapist is a mental health professional whose job is to provide one on one or group client care, or often both. During their time with a patient, the Therapist is meant to work and progress on their issues involving their general conduct and habits or a more specific behavior pattern. These Therapists often believe that all behavior is learned and modified and unlearnt through strategies and work unique to the individual. A part of this role may also lead to providing education and training to other therapists and family members of patients and collaborating with other mental health staffers.

Generally, a candidate for this position must be attending a university or have already earned a Bachelor's or Master's degree in Psychology or a similar subject.

What Does a Behavior Therapist Do

There are certain skills that many behavior therapists have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed listening skills, speaking skills and organizational skills.

Learn more about what a Behavior Therapist does

How To Become a Behavior Therapist

If you're interested in becoming a behavior therapist, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 70.9% of behavior therapists have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 16.7% of behavior therapists have master's degrees. Even though most behavior therapists have a college degree, it's possible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.

Learn More About How To Become a Behavior Therapist

Behavior Therapist Job Description

A behavior therapist is responsible for assisting patients with behavioral issues. Their duties include helping patients develop certain skills and habits, diagnosing patients, and maintaining neat documentation.

Learn more about Behavior Therapist Job Description

Top Behavior Therapist Jobs Near You

Behavior Therapist Career Paths

In addition to switching up your job search, it might prove helpful to look at a career path for your specific job. Now, what's a career path you ask? Well, it's practically a map that shows how you might advance from one job title to another. Our career paths are especially detailed with salary changes. So, for example, if you started out with the role of tutor you might progress to a role such as team leader eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title director of social services.

Top Careers Before Behavior Therapist

Internship (51,064 Jobs)

16.2 %

Volunteer (9,583 Jobs)

9.4 %

Research Assistant (51,080 Jobs)

7.4 %

Top Careers After Behavior Therapist

Internship (51,064 Jobs)

11.3 %

Behavior Analyst (67,013 Jobs)

8.1 %

Teacher (71,918 Jobs)

6.9 %

Recent Job Searches

Average Salary for a Behavior Therapist

Behavior Therapists in America make an average salary of $36,864 per year or $18 per hour. The top 10 percent makes over $49,000 per year, while the bottom 10 percent under $27,000 per year.

Average Behavior Therapist Salary

$36,864 Yearly

$17.72 hourly

$27,00010%

$36,000Median

$49,00090%

See More Salary Information

What Am I Worth?

Roles and Types of Behavior Therapist

The role of a behavior therapist includes a wide range of responsibilities. These responsibilities can vary based on an individual's specific job, company, or industry.Here are some general behavior therapist responsibilities:

Monitors trends in problem behavior. Designs
Be fun, energetic, and motivating for the children
Facilitate student s access to the classroom routine

There are several types of behavior therapist, including:

Therapist

Role:

A therapist is the keeper of secrets. Neither therapist nor client is likely to advertise what is going on during sessions. You might have pinned down therapists as doctors of psychology who try to help the weak and crazy among us.

Well, the truth is contrary: it is a humble and courageous gesture to seek the help of a professional, not only in moments of crisis, trying to deal with harmful mental patterns or toxic core beliefs, which cause suffering to the patient and his/her or her environment alike, but also on a preventive basis.

So, just as much as it is the job of therapists to diagnose mental health problems and propose and conduct treatments, it is also their responsibility to make sure a diagnosis will never be necessary.

Average Salary: $55,943
Degree: Bachelor's Degree

Residential Counselor

Role:

Residential counselors work in social care facilities such as homeless shelters, rehabilitation centers, retirement homes, and the like. Their main responsibility is to maintain the structure of the environment or program and oversee the residents' daily activities.

Residential counselors are typically expected to have a degree in psychology, social work, or a related field. They keep an eye on the mental and emotional state of the people under their care and make sure everyone lives by the rules of the facility. They give a hand with transportation and come up with fun and engaging activities for the residents to do while spending quality time together.

As a residential counselor, your responsibilities do not revolve around generating profit, and this is reflected in the median annual salary of the position, which is $29,592. This is a bit less than half of what the average yearly living expenses amount to across the U.S. Caring for each other apparently is not the most lucrative business. It is, however, very rewarding on a personal level.

Average Salary: $34,117
Degree: Bachelor's Degree

Mental Health Worker

Role:

A mental health worker provides care for people with mental health concerns or developmental disabilities. You will mostly work under the supervision of a registered nurse in psychiatric hospitals and residential mental health facilities. Some of your core job responsibilities include assessing and interacting with patients to develop treatment plans and strategies, administering therapeutic care, monitoring patients, leading individual, family, or group therapy to foster group support and growth. You will be involved in case management, brokerage services, pharmaceutical assistance, chart documentation, and other insurance concerns.

You are also expected to facilitate communication between care, service, and support providers. Important skills for any mental health worker are crisis intervention, mental health, patient care, CPR, vital signs, and great verbal and non-verbal communication skills. The average mental health worker earns $17.72 per hour or $36,000 annually. Most of them have a bachelor's degree in psychology, social work, criminal justice, or other related fields.

Average Salary: $41,081
Degree: Bachelor's Degree

States With The Most Behavior Therapist Jobs

Mouse over a state to see the number of active behavior therapist jobs in each state. The darker areas on the map show where behavior therapists earn the highest salaries across all 50 states.

Average Salary: Job Openings:

Number Of Behavior Therapist Jobs By State

Rank	State	Number of Jobs	Average Salary
1	California	6,612	$36,416
2	Texas	4,450	$37,814
3	New York	2,978	$35,283
4	Pennsylvania	2,864	$36,079
5	Illinois	2,601	$40,474
6	Massachusetts	2,484	$39,878
7	Georgia	2,189	$37,636
8	Ohio	1,908	$32,599
9	New Jersey	1,867	$36,707
10	Virginia	1,745	$38,935
11	Washington	1,726	$31,048
12	North Carolina	1,650	$34,068
13	Michigan	1,622	$35,108
14	Maryland	1,581	$34,756
15	Indiana	1,545	$35,182
16	Colorado	1,326	$35,781
17	Florida	1,325	$35,530
18	Missouri	1,243	$34,245
19	Tennessee	1,165	$32,985
20	Minnesota	1,159	$40,324
21	Wisconsin	1,099	$34,871
22	Oregon	818	$32,573
23	Iowa	750	$37,844
24	Alabama	677	$42,218
25	Kentucky	676	$38,776
26	Arizona	632	$34,188
27	Oklahoma	621	$36,007
28	Kansas	593	$36,394
29	Arkansas	568	$31,565
30	Nebraska	559	$34,208
31	Utah	483	$32,892
32	Maine	418	$32,572
33	Nevada	396	$32,289
34	Connecticut	356	$34,692
35	South Carolina	343	$28,140
36	Idaho	308	$32,843
37	Montana	290	$27,064
38	Louisiana	262	$31,650
39	North Dakota	245	$34,894
40	Delaware	240	$34,353
41	New Mexico	176	$32,050
42	Mississippi	173	$34,269
43	Alaska	135	$29,372
44	New Hampshire	132	$33,897
45	Hawaii	126	$28,987
46	Rhode Island	120	$38,531
47	South Dakota	89	$27,855
48	West Virginia	75	$40,082
49	Vermont	58	$33,297
50	Wyoming	43	$36,935

Behavior Therapist Education

Behavior Therapist Majors

Psychology

47.4 %

Counseling Psychology

6.6 %

Special Education

5.2 %

Behavior Therapist Degrees

Admissions

Most Popular Majors

Business

Education

Psychology

Criminal Justice

Social Work

Top Skills For a Behavior Therapist

The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 19.1% of behavior therapists listed autism on their resume, but soft skills such as listening skills and speaking skills are important as well.

Autism, 19.1%

Applied Behavior Analysis, 17.6%

Behavior Analysis, 10.3%

Autism Spectrum Disorder, 6.8%

Behavior Analysts, 4.7%

Other Skills, 41.5%

Choose From 10+ Customizable Behavior Therapist Resume templates

Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Behavior Therapist templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Behavior Therapist resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.

Behavior Therapist Demographics

Behavior Therapist Gender Distribution

Female

81%

Male

20%

After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:

Among behavior therapists, 80.5% of them are women, while 19.5% are men.

The most common race/ethnicity among behavior therapists is White, which makes up 68.5% of all behavior therapists.

The most common foreign language among behavior therapists is Spanish at 66.9%.

Online Courses For Behavior Therapist That You May Like

Advertising Disclosure

1. Creating Behavioral Change

In this course you will learn about understanding and changing mental and physical health behavior. We will examine both the historical context and the current science. Major topics will include fundamental behavioral principles and basic elements of empirically supported individual treatments (e.g., motivational interviewing, cognitive behavioral therapies). Lectures and examples will illustrate both the theory and the practice of evidence-based approaches to behavior change. You will engage...

See More on Coursera

2. Introduction to Human Behavioral Genetics

Behavioral genetic methodologies from twin and adoption studies through DNA analysis will be described and applied to address longstanding questions about the origins of individual differences in behavioral traits...

See More on Coursera

3. Health Behavior Change: From Evidence to Action

Humans often fail to make rational decisions that affect their health. This course seeks to heighten understanding of the social and behavioral factors that contribute to health decisions and behaviors, with an ultimate goal of learning how to utilize these factors in improving public health efforts. Through a set of experiential learning exercises, students will learn to apply the science of health behavior change in their own lives. The course is appropriate for students interested in health...

See More on Coursera

Show More Behavior Therapist Courses

Job type you want

Full Time

Part Time

Internship

Temporary

Best States For a Behavior Therapist

Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a behavior therapist. The best states for people in this position are Alabama, Illinois, Minnesota, and West Virginia. Behavior therapists make the most in Alabama with an average salary of $42,218. Whereas in Illinois and Minnesota, they would average $40,474 and $40,324, respectively. While behavior therapists would only make an average of $40,082 in West Virginia, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.

1. Illinois

Total Behavior Therapist Jobs: 2,601

Highest 10% Earn:

$54,000

Location Quotient:

1.12

$40,474

Avg. Salary

View 2,601 Behavior Therapist Jobs In IL

2. Massachusetts

Total Behavior Therapist Jobs: 2,484

Highest 10% Earn:

$51,000

Location Quotient:

1.39

$39,878

Avg. Salary

View 2,484 Behavior Therapist Jobs In MA

3. Alabama

Total Behavior Therapist Jobs: 677

Highest 10% Earn:

$57,000

Location Quotient:

0.79

$42,218

Avg. Salary

View 677 Behavior Therapist Jobs In AL

Full List Of Best States For Behavior Therapists

How Do Behavior Therapist Rate Their Jobs?

Top Behavior Therapist Employers

Most Common Employers For Behavior Therapist

Rank	Company	Average Salary	Hourly Rate	Job Openings
1	Cleveland Clinic	$52,914	$25.44	24
2	Wellspring	$40,555	$19.50	26
3	HMEA	$38,881	$18.69	23
4	ACES	$37,711	$18.13	23
5	Care.com	$37,590	$18.07	26
6	Trumpet Behavioral Health	$36,104	$17.36	53
7	Center for Autism and Related Disorders	$35,928	$17.27	144
8	RCS Learning Center	$35,872	$17.25	26
9	Florida Autism Center	$35,855	$17.24	28
10	Minnesota Autism Center	$35,814	$17.22	98

Behavior Therapist Videos

A Day in the Life of NHSC Mental Health and Behavioral Health Care Providers

A day in the life of a Child/Adolescent Psychology Fellow

Updated February 6, 2023

What is a Behavior Therapist?

What Does a Behavior Therapist Do

How To Become a Behavior Therapist

Behavior Therapist Job Description

Behavior Therapist Career Paths

Top Careers Before Behavior Therapist

Top Careers After Behavior Therapist

Recent Job Searches

Average Salary for a Behavior Therapist

Roles and Types of Behavior Therapist

Therapist

Residential Counselor

Mental Health Worker

States With The Most Behavior Therapist Jobs

Number Of Behavior Therapist Jobs By State

Behavior Therapist Education

Behavior Therapist Majors

Behavior Therapist Degrees

Top Colleges for Behavior Therapists

1. California State University - Long Beach

2. Hunter College of the City University of New York

3. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

4. Boston University

5. New York University

6. Northwestern University

7. Columbia University in the City of New York

8. Johns Hopkins University

9. SUNY at Albany

10. San Jose State University

Top Skills For a Behavior Therapist

Choose From 10+ Customizable Behavior Therapist Resume templates

Behavior Therapist Demographics

Behavior Therapist Gender Distribution

Online Courses For Behavior Therapist That You May Like

Best States For a Behavior Therapist

How Do Behavior Therapist Rate Their Jobs?

Top Behavior Therapist Employers

Most Common Employers For Behavior Therapist

Behavior Therapist Videos

Behavior Therapist Related Careers

Behavior Therapist Related Jobs

Behavior Therapist Jobs By Location

Behavior Therapist Jobs By Company