Therapist vs behavior therapist

The differences between therapists and behavior 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 $36,864 average annual salary of a behavior therapist.

The top three skills for a therapist include social work, patients and group therapy sessions. The most important skills for a behavior therapist are autism, applied behavior analysis, and behavior analysis.

Therapist vs behavior therapist overview

	Therapist	Behavior Therapist
Yearly salary	$55,943	$36,864
Hourly rate	$26.90	$17.72
Growth rate	17%	14%
Number of jobs	159,770	90,578
Job satisfaction	5	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 47%	Bachelor's Degree, 71%
Average age	41	41
Years of experience	-	4

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.

What does a behavior therapist do?

A behavior therapist is an individual psychologist who is responsible for helping patients with mental disorders such as depression and schizophrenia. Behavior therapists must equip patients with psychological tools to help them diminish unhealthy thoughts so that they can effectively deal with the challenges of their daily lives. They are required to devise problem-solving methods such as psychotherapy and counseling to help patients improve their quality of life. Behavior therapists must also collaborate with the families of their patients to help them overcome behavioral issues more effectively.

Therapist vs behavior therapist salary

Therapists and behavior therapists have different pay scales, as shown below.

	Therapist	Behavior Therapist
Average salary	$55,943	$36,864
Salary range	Between $39,000 And $80,000	Between $27,000 And $49,000
Highest paying City	San Francisco, CA	Chicago, IL
Highest paying state	California	Alabama
Best paying company	Childhelp	Regis College
Best paying industry	Government	Education

Differences between therapist and behavior therapist education

There are a few differences between a therapist and a behavior therapist in terms of educational background:

	Therapist	Behavior Therapist
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 47%	Bachelor's Degree, 71%
Most common major	Psychology	Psychology
Most common college	California State University - Long Beach	California State University - Long Beach

Therapist vs behavior therapist demographics

Here are the differences between therapists' and behavior therapists' demographics:

	Therapist	Behavior Therapist
Average age	41	41
Gender ratio	Male, 24.4% Female, 75.6%	Male, 19.5% Female, 80.5%
Race ratio	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%	Black or African American, 7.0% Unknown, 5.5% Hispanic or Latino, 13.9% Asian, 4.6% White, 68.5% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.5%
LGBT Percentage	12%	6%

Differences between therapist and behavior therapist duties and responsibilities

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.

Behavior therapist example responsibilities.

Teach family members and teachers different ways to achieve cooperation with child and transfer skills to ensure an efficient learning environment.
Provide applied behavior analysis services to individuals diagnose with autism and other developmental disabilities to enhance their quality of life.
Provide basic parent education of correct implementation of ABA principles.
Provide one-on-one aba-base treatment to children who have been diagnose with autism and other developmental disorders.
Solve certify as well as first aid and CPR certify.
Complete all requirements need to be certify as an RBT.

Therapist vs behavior therapist skills

Common therapist skills

Social Work, 23%
Patients, 12%
Group Therapy Sessions, 8%
Crisis Intervention, 7%
Mental Health, 4%
Patient Care, 3%

Common behavior therapist skills

Autism, 19%
Applied Behavior Analysis, 18%
Behavior Analysis, 10%
Autism Spectrum Disorder, 7%
Behavior Analysts, 5%
BCBA, 4%

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Therapist vs Behavior Therapist

Updated January 8, 2025

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