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Certified recreational therapist skills for your resume and career

Updated January 8, 2025
2 min read
Quoted experts
Dr. Nathan Tenhundfeld Ph.D.,
Dr. Nathan Tenhundfeld Ph.D.
Below we've compiled a list of the most critical certified recreational therapist skills. We ranked the top skills for certified recreational therapists based on the percentage of resumes they appeared on. For example, 22.4% of certified recreational therapist resumes contained patients as a skill. Continue reading to find out what skills a certified recreational therapist needs to be successful in the workplace.

15 certified recreational therapist skills for your resume and career

1. Patients

Here's how certified recreational therapists use patients:
  • Provided therapeutic recreation and social programming for patients at a Skilled Nursing Facility.
  • Prepared physician release forms for all patients participating in community outings.

2. Therapeutic Recreation

Here's how certified recreational therapists use therapeutic recreation:
  • Planned, developed, and executed therapeutic recreation programs for general adult psychiatric populations.
  • Coordinate and facilitate therapeutic recreation treatment interventions and activities.

3. Rehabilitation

Here's how certified recreational therapists use rehabilitation:
  • Initiated, researched and assisted in preparation of grant that enabled Riversides Rehabilitation Department to buy a handicapped accessible van.
  • Organized a grant funded trip to Disney World for ventilator-dependent quadriplegic patient on Rehabilitation Unit.

4. Recreation Therapy

Here's how certified recreational therapists use recreation therapy:
  • Provide individualized recreation therapy to primarily stroke and brain injury home and community clientele.
  • Developed comprehensive recreation therapy program for in-patient rehab unit.

5. CTRS

Here's how certified recreational therapists use ctrs:
  • Supervised CTRS interns in program implementation, documentation and special projects.
  • Functioned as Recreation Therapist (CTRS).

6. Interdisciplinary

Here's how certified recreational therapists use interdisciplinary:
  • Completed evaluation, wrote goals, attended interdisciplinary staff meetings.
  • Attended and participated in weekly Interdisciplinary meetings.

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7. Group Therapy

Group psychotherapy or group therapy is the practice of treating a group of clients together in one sitting throughout multiple sessions. This practice allows people to receive encouragement and support from their peers who are taking the same group therapy.

Here's how certified recreational therapists use group therapy:
  • Conducted individual, family, and group therapy with emotionally/behaviorally disordered adolescent males and their parents in a residential treatment program.
  • Facilitated group therapy sessions with mandated sex offenders who were on probation or parole; utilizing Cognitive Behavioral Therapy !

8. Treatment Programs

Here's how certified recreational therapists use treatment programs:
  • Plan, organize, direct and participate in treatment programs and activities.
  • Conducted leisure assessments and developed treatment programs that motivated patients to move toward optimum levels of mobility and quality of life.

9. Therapy Programs

Here's how certified recreational therapists use therapy programs:
  • Develop and implement recreational therapy programs to improve patient's social and physical functional behaviors.
  • Conferred with members of Individualized Care Plan treatment team to plan and evaluate therapy programs.

10. Community Resources

Community resources are a set of resources that are used in the day to day life of people which improves their lifestyle in some way. People, sites or houses, and population assistance can come under the services offered by community resources.

Here's how certified recreational therapists use community resources:
  • Collaborate with all Line Staff and Managers on access to therapy modalities, community resources and procurement of therapy supplies.
  • Provided help to protect children and prevent out-of-home placement by alleviating crisis situations, strengthening family competencies and utilizing community resources.

11. Occupational Therapy

Here's how certified recreational therapists use occupational therapy:
  • Provided occupational therapy services to in-patients with a variety of diagnoses including orthopedic, neurological, arthritis, and cardiac.
  • Recorded billable treatment times according to the Occupational Therapy department procedures and submitted weekly/monthly statistics to the corporate office.

12. Adaptive

Here's how certified recreational therapists use adaptive:
  • Provided teaching and education to children and families on adaptive recreation to encourage full recreation participation.
  • Facilitate recreation activities to improve functional skills, community re-entry, provide resource education on adaptive tools/techniques or support services.

13. Relaxation Techniques

Here's how certified recreational therapists use relaxation techniques:
  • Provide patient education on coping skills, relaxation techniques, and emotional management.

14. Mental Illness

Here's how certified recreational therapists use mental illness:
  • Provided individual, group, and family therapy to voluntary and involuntary patients suffering from chronic mental illness or co-occurring disorders.
  • Assessed patients upon admission to the psychiatric unit, provided group and individual therapy for adults with severe mental illness/suicidal/homicidal/co-occurring disorders

15. Substance Abuse

Here's how certified recreational therapists use substance abuse:
  • Assisted AA counselor in providing clients in substance abuse prevention groups.
  • Specialized in working with ex-offenders and individuals with chronic substance abuse with co-occurring mental illness.
top-skills

What skills help Certified Recreational Therapists find jobs?

Tell us what job you are looking for, we’ll show you what skills employers want.

What skills stand out on certified recreational therapist resumes?

Dr. Nathan Tenhundfeld Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Human Factors, University of Alabama in Huntsville

Strong analytical skills are a must. This includes both logic and reasoning skills, but also data analysis skills. For many jobs, the ability to collect and scientifically evaluate data will be vital, if not an absolute necessity. Similarly, a strong understanding of experimental methods can put a candidate in a great position to be able to help a company evaluate existing programs and chart a path forward for new ones. Finally, I would say that a strong ability to write is critical. Those graduates who are able to effectively and persuasively communicate in writing are setting themselves up for success at any company and allowing the company to leverage them for increasingly important tasks.

What hard/technical skills are most important for certified recreational therapists?

Dr. Nathan Tenhundfeld Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Human Factors, University of Alabama in Huntsville

Technical skills like the ability to perform statistical analyses are critically important for most Psychology-related jobs. This allows a candidate to collect and analyze data but also to interpret and understand other existing data. A strong statistical background can also help set a candidate apart from their peers in the application process. This includes understanding when and how to use various parametric and nonparametric statistics to be able to answer questions regardless of the data one is working with.

What type of skills will young certified recreational therapists need?

Lyndal Khaw Ph.D.Lyndal Khaw Ph.D. LinkedIn profile

Associate Professor and Department Chair, Montclair State University

Most of our graduates in the field of Family Science and Human Development are in this field because they want to help professions that work with children, individuals, and families. Thus, there are several skills they should have when they graduate and enter the workforce. First, they need to have excellent interpersonal and communication skills. If you want to work with people, that is an absolute given.

Second, students should demonstrate their ability to adapt to new challenges and changes, including technology skills. When working with children and families, the natural ebbs and flows of family life, across the life course, necessitate flexible professionals and who can still be useful under changing circumstances. Third, skills make you stand out in working with people, like conflict management and leadership skills. Employers want to see that graduates are not only "book smart" but have the experience to use these skills when needed on the job.

List of certified recreational therapist skills to add to your resume

Certified recreational therapist skills

The most important skills for a certified recreational therapist resume and required skills for a certified recreational therapist to have include:

  • Patients
  • Therapeutic Recreation
  • Rehabilitation
  • Recreation Therapy
  • CTRS
  • Interdisciplinary
  • Group Therapy
  • Treatment Programs
  • Therapy Programs
  • Community Resources
  • Occupational Therapy
  • Adaptive
  • Relaxation Techniques
  • Mental Illness
  • Substance Abuse
  • Group Sessions
  • MDS
  • Leisure Education
  • Crisis Intervention
  • Discharge Planning
  • Treatment Sessions
  • TBI
  • Stress Management
  • Family Education
  • Program Planning

Updated January 8, 2025

Zippia Research Team
Zippia Team

Editorial Staff

The Zippia Research Team has spent countless hours reviewing resumes, job postings, and government data to determine what goes into getting a job in each phase of life. Professional writers and data scientists comprise the Zippia Research Team.

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