What does a clinician do?
A clinician specializes in providing diagnosis, treatment, and direct care to patients with different illnesses. A clinician's duties mainly revolve around conducting extensive research and analysis, providing medical care through various therapies, and improving one's overall health condition. Furthermore, a clinician must obtain and analyze a patient's complete medical history, provide diagnostic tests, always monitor the effects of treatment on a patient, provide prognosis and consider the overall impact on a patient's health and well-being.
Clinician responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real clinician resumes:
- Perform thorough substance abuse assessments incorporating instruments such as ASAM, SASSI and urine drug screens; provide individual therapy.
- Spearhead the development of rehabilitation programs serving adults with chemical dependency and mental health diagnoses with the manager.
- Follow all ethical CARF standards when treating the residential client.
- Facilitate stabilization, assessment, care and compassion for those in critical need.
- Provide CBT and motivational interviewing for individual and group therapy to clients' who are on methadone.
- Used motivational interviewing to lead recovery and therapy groups for IOP and PHP programs in the evenings and on weekends.
- Used ASAM patient placement criteria to determine which level of care clients would be place into at admittance into addictions program.
- Demonstrate patience and compassion in an often stressful and difficult environment.
- Complete initial assessment and provide DSM diagnosis with referral for medication evaluation as needed.
- Create and implement psycho-educational groups pertaining to methadone and substance abuse and behavioral health.
- Participate in utilization management, employ CARF standards and assist as needed in re-accreditation processes
- Complete psychological assessments and evaluations, utilizing DSM diagnosis, in regulation with county requirements.
- Develop a comprehensive vocational evaluation of patients, base on interview data and vocational testing and makes appropriate treatment recommendations.
- Facilitate after care plans for all patients with appropriate community outreach/resources, medication management, therapeutic appointments, and dietetic sessions.
- Provide clinical information and feedback to CBFS direct care staff feedback regarding the person-centered rehabilitation and recovery model.
Clinician skills and personality traits
We calculated that 26% of Clinicians are proficient in Social Work, Patients, and Patient Care. They’re also known for soft skills such as Communication skills, Emotional skills, and Problem-solving skills.
We break down the percentage of Clinicians that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Social Work, 26%
Helped develop a multidisciplinary team for Complex Limb reconstruction patients involving physical therapy, social worker, therapeutic recreation and radiology.
- Patients, 14%
Facilitated after care plans for all patients with appropriate community outreach/resources, medication management, therapeutic appointments, and dietetic sessions.
- Patient Care, 4%
Organized and prioritized complex clinical information in the service of enhancing patient care for an annualized caseload of approximately 450 patients.
- Individual Therapy, 4%
Provide intensive psychotherapy in group and individual therapy to elders with treatment resistant illness using CBT t and introspective psychotherapy techniques.
- Mental Health, 4%
Performed utilization review and/or initial authorization determination of mental health and substance use services provided in inpatient and/or diversionary care settings.
- Mental Illness, 3%
Facilitate the rehabilitation and recovery of clients with a diagnosis of major mental illness via in-home therapeutic and case management services.
"social work," "patients," and "patient care" are among the most common skills that clinicians use at work. You can find even more clinician responsibilities below, including:
Communication skills. To carry out their duties, the most important skill for a clinician to have is communication skills. Their role and responsibilities require that "clients talk to social workers about challenges in their lives." Clinicians often use communication skills in their day-to-day job, as shown by this real resume: "created and instructed a communication skills i group for male and female elderly clientele with chronic mental illness. "
Problem-solving skills. This is an important skill for clinicians to perform their duties. For an example of how clinician responsibilities depend on this skill, consider that "social workers must analyze their clients’ complex situations and develop practical solutions." This excerpt from a resume also shows how vital it is to everyday roles and responsibilities of a clinician: "use the solution focused brief therapy model with children and families to preserve placements, and suffer from mental illness. ".
Organizational skills. clinician responsibilities often require "organizational skills." The duties that rely on this skill are shown by the fact that "social workers must help and manage multiple clients, often assisting with their paperwork or documenting their treatment." This resume example shows what clinicians do with organizational skills on a typical day: "fostered supportive relationships with collateral contacts and inter-organizational care coordination. "
Interpersonal skills. Another common skill required for clinician responsibilities is "interpersonal skills." This skill comes up in the duties of clinicians all the time, as "social workers must be able to work with different groups of people." An excerpt from a real clinician resume shows how this skill is central to what a clinician does: "instructed and managed group therapy sessions for addictions and recovery, life skills, interpersonal communication andpersonal growth. "
The three companies that hire the most clinicians are:
- Thriveworks217 clinicians jobs
- UPMC147 clinicians jobs
- University of Pennsylvania128 clinicians jobs
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Compare different clinicians
Clinician vs. Intensive in-home counselor
An Intensive In-Home Counselor conducts individual counseling sessions for parents and deals with delicate issues like sexual addiction. They also prepare progress reports for clients.
There are some key differences in the responsibilities of each position. For example, clinician responsibilities require skills like "social work," "patients," "patient care," and "individual therapy." Meanwhile a typical intensive in-home counselor has skills in areas such as "family therapy," "intensive in-home," "at-risk youth," and "out-of-home placements." This difference in skills reveals the differences in what each career does.
Intensives in-home counselor tend to reach lower levels of education than clinicians. In fact, intensives in-home counselor are 17.0% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 1.7% less likely to have a Doctoral Degree.Clinician vs. Substance abuse counselor
Substance abuse counselors act as a support system for people with drug and alcohol problems and other behavioral issues. They help the patients control their behavior until they achieve a full recovery. The mental health counselors aid patients to overcome their chemical dependencies and become self-sufficient individuals. Part of their duty includes meeting clients to evaluate their health and substance issues while creating goals and treatment plans. They teach clients coping mechanisms, refer them to support groups, and engage them in group therapy sessions. Once the patient is stable, they help them re-establish their careers and give updates and reports of progress to the courts. Requirements for the job include a master's degree in counseling and social work.
While some skills are similar in these professions, other skills aren't so similar. For example, resumes show us that clinician responsibilities requires skills like "patient care," "mental health," "clinical services," and "clinical supervision." But a substance abuse counselor might use other skills in their typical duties, such as, "substance abuse treatment," "excellent interpersonal," "criminal justice," and "treatment programs."
Average education levels between the two professions vary. Substance abuse counselors tend to reach lower levels of education than clinicians. In fact, they're 16.2% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree and 1.7% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.What technology do you think will become more important and prevalent for clinicians in the next 3-5 years?
Dr. Cheryl Stenmark Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Director, Industrial/Organizational Psychology Masters Program, Angelo State University
Clinician vs. Mental health therapist
The job of mental health therapists is to guide individuals, groups, couples, and families with problems that are impacting their well-being and mental health. Their duties and responsibilities include encouraging clients to talk about their experiences, examining issues that may affect mental health such as substance abuse and bullying, and assisting clients in defining their goals and action plans. Mental health therapists are also responsible for developing therapeutic processes, referring clients to other services or resources like psychologists, and helping them adjust to life changes.
Some important key differences between the two careers include a few of the skills necessary to fulfill the responsibilities of each. Some examples from clinician resumes include skills like "patient care," "individual therapy," "treatment services," and "risk assessments," whereas a mental health therapist is more likely to list skills in "community services," "excellent interpersonal," "dsm," and "treatment modalities. "
Mental health therapists typically earn higher educational levels compared to clinicians. Specifically, they're 8.1% more likely to graduate with a Master's Degree, and 0.8% more likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Clinician vs. Mental health counselor
A mental health counselor is responsible for helping patients deal with their emotional and mental disorders by developing treatment plans and conducting regular counseling to track the patient's progress and condition. Mental health counselors encourage active communication from their patients, provide coping strategies for triggering situations, seek advice from other health care professionals, and guide patients on doing other activities that would help them relax. A mental health counselor must have excellent knowledge of the mental health disciplines to assist patients in their healthy lifestyle development.
Types of clinician
Updated January 8, 2025
