The Mental Health Professional, also known as a Mental Health Therapist, diagnoses and treats patients with mental health illnesses and disorders. The Therapist, amongst other things, is tasked with doing comprehensive patient assessments, diagnosing mental health disorders, providing crisis support, organizing and fulfilling sessions with the patients, their families, groups of people with similar or same mental health issues, and others.
They also might redirect patients to other, more specialized therapists, as needed, and monitor the progress of patients during treatment. Due to the nature of their job, the Therapist also has to keep up to date with the latest research and studies of the mental health industry and their specific fields.
A person hoping to begin work as a Mental Health Professional must generally have a Master's Degree in Psychology, Social Work, or a related subject. They will most likely have to have previous experience in a similar position and some form of certification or licensing, varying from state to state.
How to Become a Mental Health Professional
What is a Mental Health Professional
There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a Mental Health Professional. For example, did you know that they make an average of $23.13 an hour? That's $48,109 a year!
Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 11% and produce 81,200 job opportunities across the U.S.
What Does a Mental Health Professional Do
There are certain skills that many Mental Health Professionals have in order to accomplish their responsibilities. By taking a look through resumes, we were able to narrow down the most common skills for a person in this position. We discovered that a lot of resumes listed Communication skills, Emotional skills and Interpersonal skills.
How To Become a Mental Health Professional
If you're interested in becoming a Mental Health Professional, one of the first things to consider is how much education you need. We've determined that 57.8% of Mental Health Professionals have a bachelor's degree. In terms of higher education levels, we found that 33.5% of Mental Health Professionals have master's degrees. Even though most Mental Health Professionals have a college degree, it's impossible to become one with only a high school degree or GED.
Choosing the right major is always an important step when researching how to become a Mental Health Professional. When we researched the most common majors for a Mental Health Professional, we found that they most commonly earn Bachelor's Degree degrees or Master's Degree degrees. Other degrees that we often see on Mental Health Professional resumes include Associate Degree degrees or Doctoral Degree degrees.
You may find that experience in other jobs will help you become a Mental Health Professional. In fact, many Mental Health Professional jobs require experience in a role such as Internship. Meanwhile, many Mental Health Professionals also have previous career experience in roles such as Case Manager or Social Work Internship.
What is the right job for my career path?
Tell us your goals and we'll match you with the right jobs to get there.
And if you’re looking for a job, here are the five top employers hiring now:
Mental Health Professional Career Paths
In addition to switching up your job search, it might prove helpful to look at a career path for your specific job. Now, what's a career path you ask? Well, it's practically a map that shows how you might advance from one job title to another. Our career paths are especially detailed with salary changes. So, for example, if you started out with the role of Therapist you might progress to a role such as Case Manager eventually. Later on in your career, you could end up with the title Medical Case Manager.
Mental Health Professional Jobs You Might Like
What is the right job for my career path?
Tell us your goals and we'll match you with the rights job to get there.
Average Salary for a Mental Health Professional
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12 Mental Health Professional Resume Examples
Build a professional mental health professional resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 12+ resume templates to create your mental health professional resume.
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Adam Hernandez Mental Health Professional |
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Hannah Riley Mental Health Professional Experience Mental Health Professional2011 - Present Metrocare Services•Dallas, TX
Clinician2008 - 2011 FAIRFAX COUNTY WATER AUTHORITY•Washington, DC
Group Therapist2004 - 2008 Private Practice•Washington, DC
Skills Co-FacilitateService DeliveryStaff MeetingsClinical DocumentationTreatment PlansSuicide PreventionSocial WorkersOutpatient ServicesAppropriate ReferralsPersonal Care Education Master's Degree Counseling Psychology1998 - 1999 John Jay College of Criminal Justice of the City University of New York•New York, NY Bachelor's Degree Business1990 - 1993 American InterContinental University•Chandler, AZ |
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Learn How To Write a Mental Health Professional Resume
At Zippia, we went through countless Mental Health Professional resumes and compiled some information about how to optimize them. Here are some suggestions based on what we found, divided by the individual sections of the resume itself.
View Mental Health Professional Resume Examples And TemplatesAnd if you’re looking for a job, here are the five top employers hiring now:
Choose From 10+ Customizable Mental Health Professional Resume templates
Zippia allows you to choose from different easy-to-use Mental Health Professional templates, and provides you with expert advice. Using the templates, you can rest assured that the structure and format of your Mental Health Professional resume is top notch. Choose a template with the colors, fonts & text sizes that are appropriate for your industry.
Mental Health Professional Demographics
Mental Health Professional Gender Distribution
After extensive research and analysis, Zippia's data science team found that:
- Among Mental Health Professionals, 73.8% of them are women, while 26.2% are men.
- The most common race/ethnicity among Mental Health Professionals is White, which makes up 80.9% of all Mental Health Professionals.
- The most common foreign language among Mental Health Professionals is Spanish at 75.0%.
Find the best Mental Health Professional job for you
Mental Health Professional Jobs You Might Like
- High Paying Mental Health Professional Jobs - $66K and Up
- Work From Home Mental Health Professional Jobs
- Entry Level Mental Health Professional Jobs
- Part Time Mental Health Professional Jobs
- Actively Hiring
- No Degree Mental Health Professional Jobs
Top Colleges for Mental Health Professionals
1. California State University - Long Beach
Long Beach, CA • Private
2. Hunter College of the City University of New York
New York, NY • Private
3. University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA • Private
4. Boston University
Boston, MA • Private
5. New York University
New York, NY • Private
6. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Chapel Hill, NC • Private
7. Northwestern University
Evanston, IL • Private
8. SUNY at Albany
Albany, NY • Private
9. San Jose State University
San Jose, CA • Private
10. Columbia University in the City of New York
New York, NY • Private
Find the best Mental Health Professional job for you
Mental Health Professional Jobs You Might Like
- High Paying Mental Health Professional Jobs - $66K and Up
- Work From Home Mental Health Professional Jobs
- Entry Level Mental Health Professional Jobs
- Part Time Mental Health Professional Jobs
- Actively Hiring
- No Degree Mental Health Professional Jobs
Online Courses For Mental Health Professional That You May Like
Discover a flexible and comprehensive way of understanding mental health as a Certified Mental Health Professional (MHP)...
Substance Abuse & Mental Health Interventions: Drug & Alcohol Addiction & Mental Health - Integrative Holistic Approach...
Learn how to support your own mental health and wellbeing and that of your staff...
Top Skills For a Mental Health Professional
The skills section on your resume can be almost as important as the experience section, so you want it to be an accurate portrayal of what you can do. Luckily, we've found all of the skills you'll need so even if you don't have these skills yet, you know what you need to work on. Out of all the resumes we looked through, 24.8% of Mental Health Professionals listed Mental Health on their resume, but soft skills such as Communication skills and Emotional skills are important as well.
Best States For a Mental Health Professional
Some places are better than others when it comes to starting a career as a Mental Health Professional. The best states for people in this position are California, Nevada, New York, and Delaware. Mental Health Professionals make the most in California with an average salary of $86,863. Whereas in Nevada and New York, they would average $74,095 and $66,546, respectively. While Mental Health Professionals would only make an average of $61,813 in Delaware, you would still make more there than in the rest of the country. We determined these as the best states based on job availability and pay. By finding the median salary, cost of living, and using the Bureau of Labor Statistics' Location Quotient, we narrowed down our list of states to these four.
1. Delaware
$61,813
Avg. Salary
2. California
$86,863
Avg. Salary
3. Washington
$57,475
Avg. Salary
How Do Mental Health Professional Rate Their Jobs?
Top Mental Health Professional Employers
We've made finding a great employer to work for easy by doing the hard work for you. We looked into employers that employ Mental Health Professionals and discovered their number of Mental Health Professional opportunities and average salary. Through our research, we concluded that Metrocare Services was the best, especially with an average salary of $43,748. Mental Health Center follows up with an average salary of $40,493, and then comes Mhmr of Tarrant County with an average of $40,212. In addition, we know most people would rather work from home. So instead of having to change careers, we identified the best employers for remote work as a Mental Health Professional. The employers include Humana, Avera McKennan Fitness Center, and Avera Health
Mental Health Professional Videos
