How To Become A Milieu Therapist: What It Is and Career Path

What is a milieu therapist and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

2 min read

There is more than meets the eye when it comes to being a milieu therapist. For example, did you know that they make an average of $19.52 an hour? That's $40,611 a year! Between 2018 and 2028, the career is expected to grow 17% and produce 40,400 job opportunities across the U.S.

ScoreMilieu TherapistUS Average

Salary

3.2

Avg. Salary $40,611

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

8.2

Growth rate 17%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

3.7

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.47%

Asian 11.40%

Black or African American 3.74%

Hispanic or Latino 7.54%

Unknown 3.75%

White 73.10%

Gender

female 66.67%

male 33.33%

Age - 40

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 - 40

Stress level

8.2

Stress level is high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

10.0

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

6.7

Work life balance is good

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a milieu therapist

Explore milieu therapist education requirements

Most common milieu therapist degrees

Bachelor's

72.1 %

Master's

14.9 %

Associate

8.9 %

Start to develop specific milieu therapist skills

Skills	Percentages
Patients	23.33%
Mental Health	13.65%
Clinical Interventions	7.93%
Therapeutic Environment	6.41%
Interdisciplinary Meetings	6.31%

Complete relevant milieu therapist training and internships

Accountants spend an average of Less than 1 month on post-employment, on-the-job training. New milieu therapists 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 milieu therapist based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real milieu therapist resumes.

Research milieu therapist duties and responsibilities

Lead parent shadowing training and meal educations, facilitate family visitations and provide crisis management and safety planning for at-risk patients.
Demonstrate working knowledge of community mental health services identify in the Medicaid guidelines and attain contractual outcomes within designate time frames.
Participate in and frequently run DBT base programs and meetings.
Provide assistance with ADL's (shower, hygiene, assistance with eating).

Prepare your milieu therapist resume

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

Choose from 10+ customizable milieu therapist resume templates

Build a professional milieu therapist 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 milieu therapist resume.