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Mental health specialist skills for your resume and career

Updated January 8, 2025

3 min read

Quoted experts

Dr. Thomas Uhle,

Dr. Benjamin Jeppsen

Below we've compiled a list of the most critical mental health specialist skills. We ranked the top skills for mental health specialists based on the percentage of resumes they appeared on. For example, 18.5% of mental health specialist resumes contained patients as a skill. Continue reading to find out what skills a mental health specialist needs to be successful in the workplace.

15 mental health specialist skills for your resume and career

1. Patients

Here's how mental health specialists use patients:

Provided psychological care to patients in an in-patient psych unit, including facilitating group activities, crisis intervention, implementing therapeutic approaches
Consulted more than 20 patients weekly regarding patient medication refills and community resource referrals for quality of life enhancement.

3. Rehabilitation

Here's how mental health specialists use rehabilitation:

Provided specialized care and direct supervision for mentally ill adult, child and adolescent directed towards optimal care and rehabilitation.PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Consulted with physicians, psychologists, occupational therapists, and other health care professionals to develop and implement rehabilitation programs.

4. Mental Health

Mental health is the state of wellbeing in which an individual can cope with the regular stresses and tensions of life, and can work productively without having any emotional or psychological breakdown. Mental health is essential for a person of any age and helps them make the right decisions in their life.

Here's how mental health specialists use mental health:

Welcomed and treated individuals with co-occurring mental health and substance abuse disorders as having two primary conditions each requiring attention.
Authorize psychotherapy psychiatry and mental health clinic services and refer to other county, medical or community-based providers as appropriate.

5. CPR

Cardiopulmonary resuscitation or CPR is a medical procedure that involves chest compression to help a patient breathe. This artificial ventilation helps in keeping the brain function in place and regulates blood throughout the body. CPR is a lifesaving procedure that is used in emergencies.

Here's how mental health specialists use cpr:

Keep current CPR certification and Certification in Therapeutic Intervention Procedures.
Maintain patient charts, supervise patients, provide meals, daily routine planning, CPR and First-Aid certification, patient interactions.

6. Vital Signs

Vital signs are a set of values indicating different body systems' performance. They are measurements of the body's most basic functions. The four major vital signs used in medicine to assess a patient are body temperature, pulse rate, respiration rate, and blood pressure.

Here's how mental health specialists use vital signs:

Assisted in prompting patients to complete ADL/ILS skills, crisis/restraints and taking routine vital signs of patients under high supervision.
Attended to patients' physical needs and well-being (vital signs, assessments) to reassure patient s health status.

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7. Substance Abuse

Here's how mental health specialists use substance abuse:

Applied a variety of psychological methods and techniques in screening, assessment and evaluation of clients identified as substance abusers/chemically dependent.
Provided support to individuals with Mental Health and/or Substance Abuse disorders in community settings including residential, school and workplace environments.

8. Mental Illness

Here's how mental health specialists use mental illness:

Counseled severely mentally disabled adults to increase insight of mental illness, while cooperatively working with county departments and hospitals.
Project coordinator for Aid and Assist program for individuals incarcerated who are experiencing acute and/or chronic mental illness.

9. Therapeutic Milieu

Here's how mental health specialists use therapeutic milieu:

Developed, implemented and assisted others in coordinating therapeutic milieu groups.
Maintained therapeutic milieu and recorded patient response to therapies.

10. Therapeutic Relationships

Here's how mental health specialists use therapeutic relationships:

Maintain and encourage face-to-face interactions with client to ensure a person-centered, positive, non-judgmental professional therapeutic relationship.
Established therapeutic relationships with patients in the milieu while providing direct patient care and maintaining professional boundaries.

11. Direct Patient Care

Here's how mental health specialists use direct patient care:

Co-facilitated Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy group sessions and provided direct patient care.
Provided direct patient care services in accordance with the treatment plan and under the direction of a professional nurse.

12. Community Resources

Community resources are a set of resources that are used in the day to day life of people which improves their lifestyle in some way. People, sites or houses, and population assistance can come under the services offered by community resources.

Here's how mental health specialists use community resources:

Identified and referred families to appropriate community resources when deemed necessary to ensure their physical and emotional needs were addressed.
Develop and maintain strong community partnership whereby services are delivered in collaboration with community resources and community based agencies.

13. Autism

Here's how mental health specialists use autism:

Work with a dynamic range of diagnosis; Autism, PDD, Attachment disorders, Anxiety, etc.
Assisted clients affected by Autism in daily living activities.

14. Mental Health Care

Here's how mental health specialists use mental health care:

Worked in the Emergency Department by providing paraprofessional mental health care under supervision of a licensed Psychologist.
Investigated and answered community concerns regarding mental health care services.

15. Behavioral Issues

Behavioral issues are the tendencies of individuals displaying unpleasant behavior as a result of sickness or addiction.

Here's how mental health specialists use behavioral issues:

Provided behavioral interventions and assisted parents and teachers by creating individualized service plans to address a variety of behavioral issues.
Conduct classroom observation to assess and determine both classroom and individual needs for intervention to alleviate behavioral issues.

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What skills help Mental Health Specialists find jobs?

Tell us what job you are looking for, we’ll show you what skills employers want.

What skills stand out on mental health specialist resumes?

Dr. Thomas Uhle

Teacher Education Program, Miami Dade College

An outstanding resume would show evidence of ongoing professional development and membership in professional organizations. It is important that teachers remain current on topics such as educational technology, exceptional student education, and educational neuroscience. Additionally, having certifications and qualifications in multiple areas is beneficial. In the Exceptional Student Education K-12 Bachelor's Program at Miami Dade College, for example, our graduates exit our program having passed their State Professional Exam, their ESE K-12 State Certification, a Reading endorsement, and a TESOL endorsement. They attend professional development programs and are encouraged to join professional organizations during their program. A resume that shows that level of experience in the field looks quite impressive, even for a recent graduate.

What soft skills should all mental health specialists possess?

Dr. Benjamin Jeppsen

Associate Professor, Augustana University

Cultural awareness, knowledge, and skills are important, including openness to work with people with varying religious views. The ability to easily connect with others and put people at ease in your presence is valuable in working with clients and collaborating with a treatment team. As more and more agencies interact with the medical field, spiritual leaders, and other holistic approaches to health, counselors need to see their role in an interdisciplinary approach to healing and work effectively with other departments. With teletherapy/virtual therapy, just the simple difficulty of creating eye contact when one's camera is not directly aligned with their viewscreen can complicate important connections in the therapeutic relationship. Learning to effectively connect through screens is essential.

What hard/technical skills are most important for mental health specialists?

Dr. Benjamin Jeppsen

Associate Professor, Augustana University

Obviously, mastering the technology used in teletherapy and virtual counseling is essential. Further, the use of computer programs for therapy notes, documentation, and diagnosis is also important. Assessment and psychometric abilities are also important as psychotherapy research has been very clear about the important role of outcome measurement and objective assessment in psychotherapy. When prospective clinicians demonstrate the ability to work with numbers (and the software needed to make them useful), they show an openness to the objective assessment of their work.

What mental health specialist skills would you recommend for someone trying to advance their career?

Jennifer Randles Ph.D.

Chair and Associate Professor, California State University, Fresno

If students need to take a gap year, I recommend enhancing their research, writing, and critical thinking skills in the interim. These skills are beneficial for any employment field, especially for those who ultimately plan to pursue graduate school in sociology.

What type of skills will young mental health specialists need?

Dr. Eva Moya Ph.D.

Professor, The University of Texas

Graduates of the social work profession need to be able to work with individuals, families, groups, organizations, and mobilize communities to bring about social, economic, political, or environmental change, in addition to being involved in social policy development.

Skills in research, to study social issues, with the intention of developing social policy or micro-level approaches to practice to improve people's lives, and training in relation to multiculturalism, cultural competence, cultural humility practice is vital.

Key skills include:
-Collaboration
-Critical thinking
-Ethics in evidence based-practice
-Assessment, intervention, and evaluation
-Social work competencies to inform behaviors.
-Administration and management
-Community practice
-Policy practice

Do you want to know more?

List of mental health specialist skills to add to your resume

The most important skills for a mental health specialist resume and required skills for a mental health specialist to have include:

Patients
Social Work
Rehabilitation
Mental Health
CPR
Vital Signs
Substance Abuse
Mental Illness
Therapeutic Milieu
Therapeutic Relationships
Direct Patient Care
Community Resources
Autism
Mental Health Care
Behavioral Issues
Direct Supervision

Money Management
Crisis Management
Mental Health Issues
CPI
Role Model
Crisis Intervention
Support Services
Compassion
Behavioral Problems
Behavior Management
Medication Administration
Discharge Planning
Therapeutic Environment
Family Therapy
Therapeutic Interventions
Community Agencies

Individual Therapy
DBT
Crisis Situations
Mental Health Assessments
de-Escalation Techniques
Mental Health Professionals
Group Therapy Sessions
Medication Management
Anger Management
Dual Diagnosis
Psychosocial Assessments
Mental Disorders
Independent Living
Early Intervention
Behavior Modification

Updated January 8, 2025

Zippia Team

Editorial Staff

The Zippia Research Team has spent countless hours reviewing resumes, job postings, and government data to determine what goes into getting a job in each phase of life. Professional writers and data scientists comprise the Zippia Research Team.

Updated January 8, 2025

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