Mental health technician vs therapist

The differences between mental health technicians 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 $32,118 average annual salary of a mental health technician.

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

Mental health technician vs therapist overview

	Mental Health Technician	Therapist
Yearly salary	$32,118	$55,943
Hourly rate	$15.44	$26.90
Growth rate	9%	17%
Number of jobs	103,710	159,770
Job satisfaction	-	5
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 52%	Bachelor's Degree, 47%
Average age	34	41
Years of experience	-	-

What does a mental health technician do?

A mental health technician's primary responsibility is to provide care and assistance to patients with mental health issues. Their tasks mainly revolve around administering scheduled and prescribed medication, monitoring vital signs, assisting during therapy sessions, and assessing patients' progress and behavior. They may also have administrative support tasks such as processing necessary documentation, preparing reports, managing schedules, and even reaching out to patients' guardians and families. A mental health technician may also build a healthy rapport with patients, giving them guidance and positive influence.

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 technician vs therapist salary

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

	Mental Health Technician	Therapist
Average salary	$32,118	$55,943
Salary range	Between $25,000 And $39,000	Between $39,000 And $80,000
Highest paying City	Sacramento, CA	San Francisco, CA
Highest paying state	Vermont	California
Best paying company	CARE	Childhelp
Best paying industry	Health Care	Government

Differences between mental health technician and therapist education

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

	Mental Health Technician	Therapist
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 52%	Bachelor's Degree, 47%
Most common major	Psychology	Psychology
Most common college	California State University - Long Beach	California State University - Long Beach

Mental health technician vs therapist demographics

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

	Mental Health Technician	Therapist
Average age	34	41
Gender ratio	Male, 36.0% Female, 64.0%	Male, 24.4% Female, 75.6%
Race ratio	Black or African American, 14.3% Unknown, 6.2% Hispanic or Latino, 20.1% Asian, 6.4% White, 51.9% American Indian and Alaska Native, 1.1%	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 technician and therapist duties and responsibilities

Mental health technician example responsibilities.

Prevent and manage aggressive behavior among patients and administer CPR in emergency intervention.
Assist and organize workshops consisting of education, personal self-defense, CPR, and other techniques relating to mental health patients.
Assist in taking care of mental health patients, doing rounds on the ward, helping patients with compassion and care.
Apply immeasurable levels of compassion to preserve and safeguard the dignity of patients at all times.
Observe patient behaviors, if patients become physically violent, CPI training restraint techniques may become necessary.
Conduct patient rounds, assist with ADL care, offer therapeutic support, and provide written reports on assign patients

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.

Mental health technician vs therapist skills

Common mental health technician skills

Patients, 26%
Vital Signs, 7%
CPR, 6%
Social Work, 5%
Crisis Intervention, 5%
Patient Safety, 4%

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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Healthcare Practitioner and Technical Industry
Mental Health Technician
Mental Health Technician vs Therapist

Updated January 8, 2025

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