How To Become A Child Life Therapist: What It Is and Career Path

What is a child life therapist and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

2 min read

Quoted expert

Ron Precht

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a child life therapist. For example, did you know that they make an average of $24.41 an hour? That's $50,768 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 17% and produce 40,400 job opportunities across the U.S.

What general advice would you give to a child life therapist?

Ron Precht

Senior Manager, American Massage Therapy Association

Generally, metropolitan areas have had more openings for massage therapists. This is a report from the end of 2019 that has the most recent data we have available. Report

ScoreChild Life TherapistUS Average

Salary

4.0

Avg. Salary $50,768

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

8.2

Growth rate 17%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

3.7

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.47%

Asian 11.23%

Black or African American 4.01%

Hispanic or Latino 7.97%

Unknown 3.80%

White 72.51%

Gender

female 65.01%

male 34.99%

Age - 40

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 40

Stress level

8.2

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

10.0

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

6.7

Work life balance is good

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a child life therapist

Explore child life therapist education requirements

Most common child life therapist degrees

Bachelor's

57.1 %

Associate

14.3 %

Master's

12.9 %

Start to develop specific child life therapist skills

Skills	Percentages
Patients	25.41%
Direct Care	19.03%
Social Work	16.65%
Physical Therapy	11.72%
Therapeutic Recreation	6.11%

Complete relevant child life therapist training and internships

Accountants spend an average of Less than 1 month on post-employment, on-the-job training. New child life therapists learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a child life therapist based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real child life therapist resumes.

Research child life therapist duties and responsibilities

Train and experience at managing challenging classroom situations using CPI methods and positive behavior reinforcement practices.
Work with clinical staff to implement clients' rehabilitation plans.
Serve on interdisciplinary team responsible for the treatment of acute psychiatric and mentally-ill chemically-addict veterans on an acute unit.
Attend CFT and IEP meetings for clients; advocate for client's best interest.

Prepare your child life therapist resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your child life therapist resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a child life therapist resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable child life therapist resume templates

Build a professional child life therapist resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your child life therapist resume.