How To Become A Mental Health Practitioner: What It Is and Career Path

What is a mental health practitioner and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Quoted expert

Dr. Tommy Casarez Ph.D.

Mental health practitioners are medical professionals responsible for taking care of patients with mental disorders such as schizophrenia, split personality disorder, and depression. As a mental health practitioner, you have to create and administer care plans for patients who are mentally disabled and make sure your patients use their drugs appropriately by observing post medication administration with the nurses. Also, you are in charge of doing regular progress check-ups on your patient to know if there will be a need for additional treatment or change in treatment and organizing therapeutic activities to ensure that your patients learn functional living skills.

You should have communication skills, emotional skills, interpersonal skills, and you should be able to prepare a treatment plan, organize group therapy and conduct in-home treatment to succeed. Most mental health practitioners have a bachelor's degree in psychology, social work, or a related course. You will earn an average of $47,177 per year on the job.

What general advice would you give to a mental health practitioner?

Dr. Tommy Casarez Ph.D.

Dr., Assistant Professor of Historical and Systematic Theology, Vanguard University

Opportunities come in many different shapes and sizes, but they are still out there. Whether you are seeking to land a job in education or the non-profit sector, you will need to familiarize yourself and get used to all things digital, for the sake of communicating effectively. The younger your student or service partner's mindset, the more digitally savvy you will need to be, especially in the classroom and in the non-profit world.

ScoreMental Health PractitionerUS Average

Salary

4.0

Avg. Salary $50,628

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

9.3

Growth rate 9%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

4.5

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.62%

Asian 3.12%

Black or African American 7.90%

Hispanic or Latino 7.90%

Unknown 6.24%

White 74.22%

Gender

female 75.90%

male 24.10%

Age - 42

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 - 42

Stress level

9.3

Stress level is very high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

10.0

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

6.5

Work life balance is good

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a mental health practitioner

Explore mental health practitioner education requirements

Most common mental health practitioner degrees

Bachelor's

58.3 %

Master's

30.2 %

Associate

6.9 %

Start to develop specific mental health practitioner skills

Skills	Percentages
Social Work	17.06%
Patients	9.32%
Mental Health	7.70%
Family Therapy	6.52%
Rehabilitation	5.75%

Complete relevant mental health practitioner training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 6-12 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New mental health practitioners 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 mental health practitioner based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real mental health practitioner resumes.

Research mental health practitioner duties and responsibilities

Manage other MHA's in their duties and help them problem solving in tense and stressful situations.
Provide case management, crisis intervention and counseling for patients diagnose with co-occurring disorders in a residential treatment setting.
Case management, CBT/DBT, vocational rehabilitation, benefit supports and application processing.
Monitor patients prescribe psychotropic medications assure compliance and accuracy, and assess effectiveness and side effects.

Prepare your mental health practitioner resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your mental health practitioner 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 mental health practitioner resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable mental health practitioner resume templates

Build a professional mental health practitioner 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 mental health practitioner resume.

Apply for mental health practitioner jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a mental health practitioner job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

Browse job boards for relevant postings
Consult your professional network
Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
Watch out for job scams

How do mental health practitioners rate their job?

-/5

5 stars

4 stars

3 stars

2 stars

1 star

Mental health practitioner reviews

A zippia user wrote a review on May 2022

Cons

The system is BROKEN! The clients are either entitled or not truly receiving the help they really need.

A zippia user wrote a review on Jan 2020

Cons

The insane amount of paperwork, the insurance/agency politics, the high expectations, the low amount of support. Burnout is very concerning for a profession where people in the frontline are the ones trying to make a difference. Individuals who work in this field need to have an incentive to keep pushing. I’m sorry but a kind heart and good intentions are not enough to sustain this type of career.

A zippia user wrote a review on Apr 2019

Pros

Change agent when people are stuck and need support in the process of restoration. One on one and group processing is powerful.