Mental health clinician vs therapist

The differences between mental health clinicians and therapists can be seen in a few details. Each job has different responsibilities and duties. Additionally, a therapist has an average salary of $55,943, which is higher than the $54,359 average annual salary of a mental health clinician.

The top three skills for a mental health clinician include social work, patients and mental health. The most important skills for a therapist are social work, patients, and group therapy sessions.

Mental health clinician vs therapist overview

	Mental Health Clinician	Therapist
Yearly salary	$54,359	$55,943
Hourly rate	$26.13	$26.90
Growth rate	9%	17%
Number of jobs	91,347	159,770
Job satisfaction	-	5
Most common degree	Master's Degree, 49%	Bachelor's Degree, 47%
Average age	45	41
Years of experience	4	-

What does a mental health clinician do?

A Mental Health Clinician provides psychotherapeutic and rehabilitation services for patients with mental health problems. They manage the treatment of clients and help them to obtain stable physical health.

What does a therapist do?

A therapist is responsible for improving the patients' health conditions by evaluating their needs and providing physical and mental support. Therapists are licensed, medical professionals who specialize in different areas to perform treatments and bring relief to patients. Some of their duties include diagnosing patient's problems, performing counseling services, monitoring medication progress, customizing therapy activities for pain management, and consulting other health professionals as needed. Therapists must have extensive knowledge with the medical industry to detect patients' conditions easily and provide effective medications.

Mental health clinician vs therapist salary

Mental health clinicians and therapists have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Mental Health Clinician	Therapist
Average salary	$54,359	$55,943
Salary range	Between $36,000 And $80,000	Between $39,000 And $80,000
Highest paying City	San Francisco, CA	San Francisco, CA
Highest paying state	California	California
Best paying company	City and County of Denver Government	Childhelp
Best paying industry	Education	Government

Differences between mental health clinician and therapist education

There are a few differences between a mental health clinician and a therapist in terms of educational background:

	Mental Health Clinician	Therapist
Most common degree	Master's Degree, 49%	Bachelor's Degree, 47%
Most common major	Psychology	Psychology
Most common college	California State University - Long Beach	California State University - Long Beach

Mental health clinician vs therapist demographics

Here are the differences between mental health clinicians' and therapists' demographics:

	Mental Health Clinician	Therapist
Average age	45	41
Gender ratio	Male, 24.3% Female, 75.7%	Male, 24.4% Female, 75.6%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 7.9% Unknown, 6.2% Hispanic or Latino, 7.9% Asian, 3.1% White, 74.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.6%	Black or African American, 4.0% Unknown, 3.8% Hispanic or Latino, 7.9% Asian, 11.3% White, 72.6% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.5%
LGBT Percentage	15%	12%

Differences between mental health clinician and therapist duties and responsibilities

Mental health clinician example responsibilities.

Work with children with autism and developmental impairment, providing weekly therapeutic sessions.
Provide individual and group psychotherapy for adult population with goal of rehabilitation and community reintegration.
Meet productivity standards comply with all DMH documentation standards and participate in on call crisis intervention rotation.
Provide psychotherapy with empathy and concern as indicated by supervisory observation and feedback from patients, family and fellow team members.
Provide clinical therapeutic services to patients, including individual and group therapy and coordination of treatment for participants with co-occurring disorders.
Assess, diagnose, provide psychotherapy and rehabilitation for seriously mentally ill adults, children and adolescents with severe emotional disturbance.

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Therapist example responsibilities.

Manage ventilator and BiPAP's and create or update care plans per patient needs.
Demonstrate working knowledge of community mental health services identify in the Medicaid guidelines and attain contractual outcomes within designate time frames.
Provide on-call crisis intervention as well as standard treatment, rehabilitation and support services with some interventions requiring specialize therapy services.
Develop and implement an effective curriculum of DBT inform group and art therapy classes specifically tailor for chemically dependent patients.
Provide trauma-inform individual psychotherapy, TREM group treatment protocol, and EMDR.
Utilize current brain base therapeutic techniques to teach clients adaptive skills to utilize in daily lives.

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Mental health clinician vs therapist skills

Common mental health clinician skills

Social Work, 28%
Patients, 15%
Mental Health, 5%
Discharge Planning, 3%
Community Resources, 3%
Rehabilitation, 2%

Common therapist skills

Social Work, 23%
Patients, 12%
Group Therapy Sessions, 8%
Crisis Intervention, 7%
Mental Health, 4%
Patient Care, 3%

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Updated January 8, 2025

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