How to hire a senior therapist

Senior therapist hiring summary. Here are some key points about hiring senior therapists in the United States:

There are a total of 5,470 senior therapists in the US, and there are currently 68,064 job openings in this field.
The median cost to hire a senior therapist is $1,633.
Small businesses spend $1,105 per senior therapist on training each year, while large companies spend $658.
It takes between 36 and 42 days to fill the average role in the US.
It takes approximately 12 weeks for a new employee to reach full productivity levels.
HR departments typically allocate 15% of their budget towards recruitment efforts.
Alexandria, VA, has the highest demand for senior therapists, with 7 job openings.

How to hire a senior therapist, step by step

To hire a senior therapist, you need to identify the specific skills and experience you want in a candidate, allocate a budget for the position, and advertise the job opening to attract potential candidates. To hire a senior therapist, you should follow these steps:

Here's a step-by-step senior therapist hiring guide:

Step 1: Identify your hiring needs
Step 2: Create an ideal candidate profile
Step 3: Make a budget
Step 4: Write a senior therapist job description
Step 5: Post your job
Step 6: Interview candidates
Step 7: Send a job offer and onboard your new senior therapist
Step 8: Go through the hiring process checklist

What does a senior therapist do?

Senior therapists lead and manage a facility's therapeutic program and work hand-in-hand with other facility team members to deliver, oversee, plan, and coordinate the therapeutic program. These professionals promote professional accountability, quality development, evaluation, clinical governance, and monitoring. Besides supervising community forums and similar activities, senior therapists also attend appropriate staff and clinical supervision meetings. They document and share with the clinical team the right therapeutic guidelines and processes to follow.

Learn more about the specifics of what a senior therapist does

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Identify your hiring needs

First, determine the employments status of the senior therapist you need to hire. Certain senior therapist roles might require a full-time employee, whereas others can be done by part-time workers or contractors.

Determine employee vs contractor status

Is the person you're thinking of hiring a US citizen or green card holder?

You should also consider the ideal background you'd like them a senior therapist to have before you start to hire. For example, what industry or field would you like them to have experience in, what level of seniority or education does the job require, and how much it'll cost to hire a senior therapist that fits the bill.

The following list breaks down different types of senior therapists and their corresponding salaries.

Type of Senior Therapist	Description	Hourly rate
Senior Therapist	Mental health counselors and marriage and family therapists help people manage and overcome mental and emotional disorders and problems with family and other relationships. They listen to clients and ask questions to help the clients understand their problems and develop strategies to improve their lives.	$21-43
Family Counselor	A Family Counselor treats married couples or family members in order to help them overcome mental or emotional problems. They provide effective treatment measures to help the family members resolve their issues.	$12-29
Child And Family Therapist	Child and family therapists are therapists who specialize in treating traumatized children due to neglect or abuse. They always formulate various techniques and activities to treat their patients and help improve the affected family's quality of living while maintaining confidentiality and following HIPAA laws and agency policies and procedures... Show more	$17-38

Create an ideal candidate profile
Common skills:
- Social Work
- Autism
- Mental Health
- Patients
- Behavior Analysis
- ABA
- Substance Abuse
- Applied Behavior Analysis
- Crisis Intervention
- BCBA
- Family Therapy
- Professional Development
- Group Therapy
- Behavior Management
Check all skills
Responsibilities:
- Manage and target behaviors using the ESDM, ABA, PRT and SCERTS model.
- Function as a case manager, co-le group therapy and provide psychiatrist supervise individual therapy to adolescent patients.
- Work with children, adolescents, adults, couples and families.
- Produce detailed quarterly reports on each student, used in IEP meetings to assess student's progress.
- Collaborate with parents, teachers, and other professionals on the implementation of programs, and attend IEP meetings.
- Implement one on one behavioral intervention programs in the homes of children with autism while using apply behavioral analysis therapy.
More senior therapist duties

Make a budget

Including a salary range in your senior therapist job description helps attract top candidates to the position. A senior therapist salary can be affected by several factors, such as geography, experience, seniority, certifications, and the prestige of the hiring company.

For example, the average salary for a senior therapist in New Mexico may be lower than in Pennsylvania, and an entry-level senior therapist usually earns less than a senior-level senior therapist. Additionally, a senior therapist with certifications may command a higher salary, and working for a well-known company or start-up may also impact an employee's pay.

Average senior therapist salary

$63,963yearly

$30.75 hourly rate

Entry-level senior therapist salary

$44,000 yearly salary

Updated December 19, 2025

Average senior therapist salary by state

Rank	State	Avg. salary	Hourly rate
1	New York	$68,967	$33
2	Virginia	$68,726	$33
3	Maryland	$66,995	$32
4	Minnesota	$65,289	$31
5	Illinois	$64,110	$31
6	California	$60,544	$29
7	Michigan	$60,440	$29
8	Wisconsin	$60,142	$29
9	Colorado	$54,438	$26
10	Iowa	$53,642	$26
11	Nevada	$48,659	$23
12	New Mexico	$46,276	$22

Average senior therapist salary by company

Rank	Company	Average salary	Hourly rate	Job openings
1	Montage Health	$77,137	$37.09	6
2	Brattleboro Retreat	$75,297	$36.20	5
3	City Of Alexandria	$74,331	$35.74	4
4	Regional Medical Center- Orangeburg	$73,316	$35.25
5	Harrison County Hospital	$72,493	$34.85
6	Plumas District Hospital	$70,367	$33.83	4
7	Lake County	$69,821	$33.57	10
8	Regional Health Rapid City Hospital	$69,419	$33.37	9
9	Mount Sinai Health System	$67,212	$32.31	5
10	ONR	$65,063	$31.28
11	Prince William County	$63,950	$30.75	1
12	UCHealth	$63,206	$30.39	12
13	UMC Moving	$58,848	$28.29
14	Lawrence Memorial Hospital	$58,594	$28.17	1
15	St. Anne Institute	$58,086	$27.93	2
16	Jefferson Center Mental Health	$56,610	$27.22	20
17	Consultants for Children	$55,912	$26.88
18	Center for Autism and Related Disorders	$54,251	$26.08
19	Eagleville Hospital	$54,028	$25.98	5
20	UC Health	$53,369	$25.66	20

Writing a senior therapist job description
A good senior therapist job description should include a few things:
- Summary of the role
- List of responsibilities
- Required skills and experience
Including a salary range and the first name of the hiring manager is also appreciated by candidates. Here's an example of a senior therapist job description:
Senior therapist job description example

3 Cs:

Care - Provide the best possible patient care

Compliance - Ensure the program operates within all regulations

Community - Become a wonderful addition to your local community

Care: All employees are expected to provide the best possible patient care

- Ensure accurate completion of the psychosocial assessment on each patient

- Ensure accurate completion of group psychotherapy notes for each patient

- Ensure accurate completion of treatment plans

- Demonstrate understanding of mental health assessment of older adults

- Demonstrate an understanding of gerontological counseling treatment, group therapy, theory, and evidenced based practices

- Provide understanding of gerontological case management

- Ensure understanding of mental disorders associated with aging

Compliance: Ensure the program operates within all regulations

- Participate in outcome studies timelines, understanding of administration of the tests and when they are to be reported

- Participate in treatment team meetings with medical director

- Comply with 25-point check list

- Complete all notes in prescribed timeline

- Comply with all regulations

Community: Become a wonderful addition to your local community

- Demonstrate understanding of community education definitions and activities

- Participate in customer service training as it relates to community integration

- Present Senior Life Solutions to community as directed by Program Director

- Participate in cohesive team environment to ensure program success

Working conditions

Incumbent will be exposed to virus, disease, infection from patients.

Physical requirements

While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to talk and hear. Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, distance vision, color vision, peripheral vision, depth perception and ability to adjust focus.

Qualifications

- Education: master's degree in social work from an accredited graduate school of social work or master's degree in other counseling related field.

- Licensure: License in Social Work or Counseling as recognized by state. May include LCSW, LPC, LMFT, etc.

- Certification: Must meet any applicable state certification standards.

- Experience: Two to three years of clinical experience with older persons, extensive group work, hospital or nursing home experience preferred.

Direct reports

This position has no direct reports.

Benefits

- Monday through Friday schedule

- No after-hours call

- Competitive salary and benefits

- Diverse roles including clinical, leadership, and community liaison

- Matching 401K with immediate vesting

- Relocation assistance considered

About PMC/Senior Life Solutions

Founded in 2003, Psychiatric Medical Care manages more than 65 Senior Life Solutions programs across the U.S. Senior Life Solutions is an intensive outpatient behavioral healthcare program designed to meet the needs of adults over the age of 65 who are struggling with symptoms of depression or anxiety often related to aging. Patients are offered services by an interdisciplinary team of caring, experienced, behavioral health professionals, which includes a psychiatrist, licensed therapist, and registered nurse.

To ensure we retain and invest in great people, PMC provides its employees with excellent benefits, recognition, training, and the opportunities needed for professional growth. Join us in making a difference in the lives of seniors in your community.

To apply for this position, please visit www.psychmc.com/careers/listings.

Job Posted by ApplicantPro
Post your job
To find senior therapists for your business, try out a few different recruiting strategies:
- Consider internal talent. One of the most important talent pools for any company is its current employees.
- Ask for referrals. Reach out to friends, family members, and your current work to ask if they know any senior therapists they would recommend.
- Recruit at local colleges. Attend job fairs at local colleges to recruit entry-level senior therapists with the right educational background.
- Social media platforms. LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter have more than 3.5 billion users, and they're a great place for company branding and reaching potential job candidates.
Post your job online:
- Post your senior therapist job on Zippia to find and recruit senior therapist candidates who meet your exact specifications.
- Use field-specific websites.
- Post a job on free websites.
Interview candidates
Your first interview with senior therapist candidates should focus on their interest in the role and background experience. As the hiring process goes on, you can learn more about how they'd fit into the company culture in later rounds of interviews.
You should also ask about candidates' unique skills and talents to see if they match the ideal candidate profile you developed earlier. Candidates good enough for the next step can complete the technical interview.
The right interview questions can help you assess a candidate's hard skills, behavioral intelligence, and soft skills.
Send a job offer and onboard your new senior therapist
Once you've selected the best senior therapist candidate for the job, it's time to write an offer letter. In addition to salary, this letter should include details about the benefits and perks you offer the candidate. Ensuring that your offer is competitive is essential, as qualified candidates may be considering other job opportunities. The candidate may wish to negotiate the terms of the offer, and you should be open to discussion. After you reach an agreement, the final step is formalizing the agreement with a contract.
It's equally important to follow up with applicants who don't get the job with an email letting them know that the position has been filled.
After that, you can create an onboarding schedule for a new senior therapist. Human Resources and the hiring manager should complete Employee Action Forms. Human Resources should also ensure that onboarding paperwork is completed, including I-9s, benefits enrollment, federal and state tax forms, etc., and that new employee files are created.
Go through the hiring process checklist
- Determine employee type (full-time, part-time, contractor, etc.)
- Submit a job requisition form to the HR department
- Define job responsibilities and requirements
- Establish budget and timeline
- Determine hiring decision makers for the role
- Write job description
- Post job on job boards, company website, etc.
- Promote the job internally
- Process applications through applicant tracking system
- Review resumes and cover letters
- Shortlist candidates for screening
- Hold phone/virtual interview screening with first round of candidates
- Conduct in-person interviews with top candidates from first round
- Score candidates based on weighted criteria (e.g., experience, education, background, cultural fit, skill set, etc.)
- Conduct background checks on top candidates
- Check references of top candidates
- Consult with HR and hiring decision makers on job offer specifics
- Extend offer to top candidate(s)
- Receive formal job offer acceptance and signed employment contract
- Inform other candidates that the position has been filled
- Set and communicate onboarding schedule to new hire(s)
- Complete new hire paperwork (i9, benefits enrollment, tax forms, etc.)
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How much does it cost to hire a senior therapist?

There are different types of costs for hiring senior therapists. One-time cost per hire for the recruitment process. Ongoing costs include employee salary, training, onboarding, benefits, insurance, and equipment. It is essential to consider all of these costs when evaluating hiring a new senior therapist employee.

You can expect to pay around $63,963 per year for a senior therapist, as this is the median yearly salary nationally. This can vary depending on what state or city you're hiring in. If you're hiring for contract work or on a per-project basis, hourly rates for senior therapists in the US typically range between $21 and $43 an hour.

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Updated December 19, 2025

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How to hire a senior therapist