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.
Mental health clinician responsibilities
Here are examples of responsibilities from real mental health clinician resumes:
- 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.
- Provide individual counseling, weekly psycho-educational groups in DBT and substance abuse prevention, crisis intervention and administration of clinical intakes.
- Provide necessary documentation for court reports and Medi-Cal billing.
- Document and bill for services in accordance with Medi-Cal regulations.
- Complete seamless transition from clinic to hospital for veterans in need of inpatient treatment due to SI/HI and psychosis.
- Conduct DMH base individualized intakes/assessments by gathering information from client, family, and other involve agencies.
- Conduct in-home functional behavioral assessments and develop an individualize behavior plan for refer clients from DCF.
- 49855Provide case management to severely mentally ill and developmentally disable adults, facilitate co-occurring group therapy, participate with DBT team.
- Integrate interview data, collateral records and psychological assessment information into comprehensive reports for the courts or overseeing DCF office.
- Develop and facilitate a psycho-educational program for recovery from depression and PTSD.
Mental health clinician skills and personality traits
We calculated that 28% of Mental Health Clinicians are proficient in Social Work, Patients, and Mental Health. They’re also known for soft skills such as Communication skills, Emotional skills, and Problem-solving skills.
We break down the percentage of Mental Health Clinicians that have these skills listed on their resume here:
- Social Work, 28%
Developed and implemented individual treatment plans stemming from a social work assessment.
- Patients, 15%
Provided psychotherapy with empathy and concern as indicated by supervisory observation and feedback from patients, family and fellow team members.
- Mental Health, 5%
Developed and updated on a yearly basis the suicide prevention and mental health awareness training for correctional officers and civilian personnel.
- Discharge Planning, 3%
Participate in interdisciplinary treatment team planning/monitoring/discharge planning.
- Community Resources, 3%
Participated in daily clinical rounds with a multidisciplinary treatment team, made recommendations for treatment and provide internal and community resources.
- Rehabilitation, 2%
Assessed, diagnosed, provided psychotherapy and rehabilitation for seriously mentally ill adults, children and adolescents with severe emotional disturbance.
Common skills that a mental health clinician uses to do their job include "social work," "patients," and "mental health." You can find details on the most important mental health clinician responsibilities below.
Communication skills. The most essential soft skill for a mental health clinician to carry out their responsibilities is communication skills. This skill is important for the role because "clients talk to social workers about challenges in their lives." Additionally, a mental health clinician resume shows how their duties depend on communication skills: "build stellar rapport with patients & families to provide exceptional patient care and ensure good communication. "
Problem-solving skills. Another skill that relates to the job responsibilities of mental health clinicians is problem-solving skills. This skill is critical to many everyday mental health clinician duties, as "social workers must analyze their clients’ complex situations and develop practical solutions." This example from a resume shows how this skill is used: "provide crisis intervention & facilitate conflict resolution providing intensive, short- and long-term individual therapy. "
Interpersonal skills. mental health clinician responsibilities often require "interpersonal skills." The duties that rely on this skill are shown by the fact that "social workers must be able to work with different groups of people." This resume example shows what mental health clinicians do with interpersonal skills on a typical day: "facilitate group therapy related to topics such as recovery, discharge planning, stress/anger management, interpersonal relationships and community meeting. "
Organizational skills. A commonly-found skill in mental health clinician job descriptions, "organizational skills" is essential to what mental health clinicians do. Mental health clinician responsibilities rely on this skill because "social workers must help and manage multiple clients, often assisting with their paperwork or documenting their treatment." You can also see how mental health clinician duties rely on organizational skills in this resume example: "connect foster youth and families to mental health treatment options with contracted organizational providers in the community. "
Compassion. Another skill commonly found on mental health clinician job descriptions is "compassion." It can come up quite often in mental health clinician duties, since "social workers often work with people who are in stressful and difficult situations." Here's an example from a resume of how this skill fits into day-to-day mental health clinician responsibilities: "facilitate groups to include cbt, mindfulness, self compassion and substance use recovery. "
The three companies that hire the most mental health clinicians are:
- Central City Concern850 mental health clinicians jobs
- WellBridge Group104 mental health clinicians jobs
- Eskenazi Health
55 mental health clinicians jobs
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Compare different mental health clinicians
Mental health clinician vs. Primary therapist
Primary therapists are the main point of contact for patients concerning wellness and overall mental health. Those who choose this career path will be expected to supervise and manage efficient treatment according to plan, and to manage between six and eight patients at a time, keeping in constant communication with these patients and various specialists.
These skill sets are where the common ground ends though. The responsibilities of a mental health clinician are more likely to require skills like "mental health," "rehabilitation," "treatment services," and "compassion." On the other hand, a job as a primary therapist requires skills like "excellent organizational," "patient care," "treatment plan reviews," and "mental illness." As you can see, what employees do in each career varies considerably.
Primary therapists earn the highest salaries when working in the finance industry, with an average yearly salary of $61,326. On the other hand, mental health clinicians are paid more in the education industry with an average salary of $57,456.On average, primary therapists reach similar levels of education than mental health clinicians. Primary therapists are 0.5% more likely to earn a Master's Degree and 0.2% less likely to graduate with a Doctoral Degree.Mental health clinician vs. Family therapist
A Family Therapist works with couples and families to help ameliorate marital and family issues. They can work in hospitals, treatment programs, government agencies, health organizations, and private practices.
In addition to the difference in salary, there are some other key differences worth noting. For example, mental health clinician responsibilities are more likely to require skills like "treatment services," "group therapy sessions," "clinical services," and "dsm." Meanwhile, a family therapist has duties that require skills in areas such as "group therapy," "child abuse," "fft," and "family systems." These differences highlight just how different the day-to-day in each role looks.
Family therapists earn a lower average salary than mental health clinicians. But family therapists earn the highest pay in the health care industry, with an average salary of $50,267. Additionally, mental health clinicians earn the highest salaries in the education with average pay of $57,456 annually.In general, family therapists achieve similar levels of education than mental health clinicians. They're 2.0% less likely to obtain a Master's Degree while being 0.2% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.What technology do you think will become more important and prevalent for mental health clinicians in the next 3-5 years?
Dr. Karen Bullock Ph.D.
Professor and Head, North Carolina State University
Now that we know we can host an effective and productive meeting, training, or presentation via Zoom, WebEx, Blackboard, GoToWebinar, GoToMeeting, 2U Connect, Microsoft Teams, and more, these technologies have become a mainstay for the next 3-5 years. As unfortunate and distressing as the COVID19 pandemic is, let's face it, we have been forced to innovate and create new ways of engaging, collaborating, educating, and communicating that can be sustained for years to come.
Many people whom I talk with about the changes and challenges say that they are delighted to have embarked upon such a plethora of options for doing business as (not so) usual; primarily mental health clinicians who are now able to see their clients and provide services without the issues and barriers of transportation, lack of time to transition from work to the therapist's office. Being able to pivot from one business meeting to a therapy appointment or a medical appointment is desirable for many people I converse with about technology and our new standard of adjusting to COVID19.
Mental health clinician vs. Marriage and family therapist
Marriage and family therapists are health professionals who are licensed to diagnose and treat mental and emotional disorders of married couples and families. These therapists are required to treat patients with issues such as child and adolescent behavioral problems, depression and anxiety, and marital conflicts. They must observe the interaction of people within units while evaluating and resolving their issues with relationships. Marriage and family therapists must also guide their clients to go through transitional crises such as divorce or death.
Some important key differences between the two careers include a few of the skills necessary to fulfill the responsibilities of each. Some examples from mental health clinician resumes include skills like "discharge planning," "rehabilitation," "treatment services," and "compassion," whereas a marriage and family therapist is more likely to list skills in "substance abuse," "mental illness," "mft," and "child abuse. "
Marriage and family therapists earn the best pay in the government industry, where they command an average salary of $60,978. Mental health clinicians earn the highest pay from the education industry, with an average salary of $57,456.Most marriage and family therapists achieve a lower degree level compared to mental health clinicians. For example, they're 12.1% less likely to graduate with a Master's Degree, and 0.9% less likely to earn a Doctoral Degree.Mental health clinician vs. Psychiatric social worker
A psychiatric social worker specializes in providing mental health treatments and other services to patients and their families, referring them to other agencies and programs as needed. They conduct assessments and interviews to determine the condition of patients, devise specific treatment and care plans, update and maintain patient records, conduct regular counseling sessions, and monitor the progress of every patient to ensure their health and welfare. They may also provide interventions, train junior psychiatric social workers, and conduct reviews and evaluations on existing care plans.
Types of mental health clinician
Updated January 8, 2025
