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Child and family therapist skills for your resume and career

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Quoted experts

Dr. Thomas Uhle,

Treniece Lewis Harris Ph.D.

Below we've compiled a list of the most critical child and family therapist skills. We ranked the top skills for child and family therapists based on the percentage of resumes they appeared on. For example, 20.8% of child and family therapist resumes contained social work as a skill. Continue reading to find out what skills a child and family therapist needs to be successful in the workplace.

15 child and family therapist skills for your resume and career

2. Diagnosis

Here's how child and family therapists use diagnosis:

Developed comprehensive treatment plans that focused on accurate diagnosis and behavioral treatment of problems.
Determined diagnosis and developed treatment plans.

3. Mental Health

Mental health is the state of wellbeing in which an individual can cope with the regular stresses and tensions of life, and can work productively without having any emotional or psychological breakdown. Mental health is essential for a person of any age and helps them make the right decisions in their life.

Here's how child and family therapists use mental health:

Participated in planning for improving mental health services by interpreting social factors pertinent to development of program.
Coordinated integrated mental health care including case management, comprehensive evaluations/ assessments, and individualized treatment plans.

4. Individual Therapy

Here's how child and family therapists use individual therapy:

Conducted ongoing individual therapy sessions with residents as well as biweekly therapy groups with residents.
Provide individual therapy and family therapy to children in the school/home/clinic settings.

5. 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 child and family therapists use community resources:

Assess and assist clients in accessing community resources and supports by providing appropriate referral information.
Organized and facilitated a task force responsible for identifying and coordinating community resources for clients

6. Behavioral Health

Here's how child and family therapists use behavioral health:

Implemented intensive therapeutic interventions to resolve emotional and behavioral health concerns.
Conducted Behavioral Health Intake Assessments and determined group placement.

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7. Crisis Intervention

Here's how child and family therapists use crisis intervention:

Provide psychological evaluations/problem identification and crisis interventions.
Sponsored ongoing training for TFC parents, engaged in clinical assessments for program placements and offered crisis intervention and clinical consultation/oversight.

8. Group Therapy Sessions

Here's how child and family therapists use group therapy sessions:

Conducted group therapy sessions that focused on positive character development.
Led group therapy sessions consisting of ten to fifteen At-Risk youth focusing on drop-out prevention.

9. Mental Health Assessments

Here's how child and family therapists use mental health assessments:

Complete mental health assessments and administer clinical tools with a holistic professional welfare approach for undocumented immigrant children in federal custody.
Created intake bio/psycho/social/spiritual mental health assessments to determine medical necessity for access to mental health care.

10. Mental Health Issues

Here's how child and family therapists use mental health issues:

Worked consistently with current treating psychologist and psychiatrist to address medication management needs, identify diagnosis and monitor mental health issues.
Diagnosed children with mental health issues by using Diagnostic Statistical Manual and provided individualized treatment plans for all individual cases.

11. Therapeutic Services

Here's how child and family therapists use therapeutic services:

Provide therapeutic services for severally behaviorally and emotionally disturbed children and families including intake assessments and a variety of direct-therapeutic services.
Provided weekly therapeutic services appropriate for high-risk children and their family units.

12. Foster Care

Here's how child and family therapists use foster care:

Provided case management to transition individuals into foster care or reunification with family, utilizing the Adoption Courtship Model.
Counseled children/adolescents and provided family therapy in a therapeutic, foster care environment.

13. Substance Abuse

Here's how child and family therapists use substance abuse:

Provided intensive individual and group therapy to adolescents in residential substance abuse program.
Conducted therapeutic intervention for the La Canada substance abuse program.

14. Child Abuse

When a child who is under 18 is mistreated by an adult, it is considered child abuse. There are many forms of intentional harm and mistreatment for example physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, medical abuse, and neglect in providing adequate basic life necessities.

Here's how child and family therapists use child abuse:

Serve on Deaconess's Regional Center for Child Abuse and Neglect multidisciplinary team.
Provided courtroom testimony to assist in custody cases involving child abuse and neglect.

15. Behavioral Problems

Here's how child and family therapists use behavioral problems:

Focus on helping caregivers address behavioral problems, thereby improving family relationships, school performance, and peer/neighborhood/ community interactions.
Managed Specialty Bed Program for adolescents with severe behavioral problems.

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What skills help Child And Family Therapists find jobs?

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

What skills stand out on child and family therapist resumes?

Dr. Thomas Uhle

Teacher Education Program, Miami Dade College

An outstanding resume would show evidence of ongoing professional development and membership in professional organizations. It is important that teachers remain current on topics such as educational technology, exceptional student education, and educational neuroscience. Additionally, having certifications and qualifications in multiple areas is beneficial. In the Exceptional Student Education K-12 Bachelor's Program at Miami Dade College, for example, our graduates exit our program having passed their State Professional Exam, their ESE K-12 State Certification, a Reading endorsement, and a TESOL endorsement. They attend professional development programs and are encouraged to join professional organizations during their program. A resume that shows that level of experience in the field looks quite impressive, even for a recent graduate.

What soft skills should all child and family therapists possess?

Treniece Lewis Harris Ph.D.

Associate Professor of the Practice, Program Director, Master's Program in Mental Health Counseling, Boston College

-compassion

-active listening

-perspective-taking

-open-mindedness and respect for differences

-humility

-curiosity and critical observation

-problem recognition and analytical thinking

-creativity and flexibility

-presentation skills

What hard/technical skills are most important for child and family 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 child and family therapist skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?

Sonia Manuel-Dupont Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Utah State University

If a student takes a gap year, I advise them to look for opportunities to build the skills listed above. Often this comes from community engagement and volunteer work. If the work situation does not align with the intended graduate work, the student should look for volunteer work to practice these skills.

What type of skills will young child and family therapists need?

Dr. Eva Moya Ph.D.

Professor, The University of Texas

Graduates of the social work profession need to be able to work with individuals, families, groups, organizations, and mobilize communities to bring about social, economic, political, or environmental change, in addition to being involved in social policy development.

Skills in research, to study social issues, with the intention of developing social policy or micro-level approaches to practice to improve people's lives, and training in relation to multiculturalism, cultural competence, cultural humility practice is vital.

Key skills include:

Collaboration

Critical thinking

-Ethics in evidence based-practice

Assessment, intervention, and evaluation

Social work competencies to inform behaviors.

Administration and management

Community practice

Policy practice

Do you want to know more?

List of child and family therapist skills to add to your resume

The most important skills for a child and family therapist resume and required skills for a child and family therapist to have include:

Social Work
Diagnosis
Mental Health
Individual Therapy
Community Resources
Behavioral Health
Crisis Intervention
Group Therapy Sessions
Mental Health Assessments
Mental Health Issues
Therapeutic Services
Foster Care
Substance Abuse
Child Abuse
Behavioral Problems
Autism
Social Services

LPC
Therapeutic Interventions
Child Care
Clinical Services
Rehabilitation
Intake Assessments
Family Systems
DHS
Clinical Supervision
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
Community Agencies
Crisis Situations
Compassion
Clinical Documentation
Medicaid
Discharge Planning
Group Supervision

Art Therapy
Psychosocial Assessments
Clinical Assessments
Crisis Management
ADHD
Anger Management
Sexual Abuse
DBT
Domestic Violence
Family Therapy
Risk Assessments
Collaborative Problem
Mental Health Treatment
DCFS
TF-CBT

Updated January 8, 2025

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.

Updated January 8, 2025

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