Therapist vs behavioral therapist

The differences between therapists and behavioral 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 $37,881 average annual salary of a behavioral therapist.

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

Therapist vs behavioral therapist overview

	Therapist	Behavioral Therapist
Yearly salary	$55,943	$37,881
Hourly rate	$26.90	$18.21
Growth rate	17%	14%
Number of jobs	159,770	91,976
Job satisfaction	5	-
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 47%	Bachelor's Degree, 70%
Average age	41	39
Years of experience	-	6

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 behavioral therapist do?

A behavioral therapist is responsible for supporting patients with various developmental disorders and behavioral difficulties. Behavioral therapists conduct counseling to the patients, identifying their personal and social challenges, and administering treatment plans to modify unusual behaviors. They also coordinate with other medical professionals to plan activities and therapy sessions for patients' needs. A behavioral therapist maintains a record of the patients' progress, help them on developing social engagement, and adjust treatment strategies depending on the patients' noticeable changes.

Therapist vs behavioral therapist salary

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

	Therapist	Behavioral Therapist
Average salary	$55,943	$37,881
Salary range	Between $39,000 And $80,000	Between $27,000 And $51,000
Highest paying City	San Francisco, CA	New York, NY
Highest paying state	California	New York
Best paying company	Childhelp	George C. Grape Community Hospital
Best paying industry	Government	Energy

Differences between therapist and behavioral therapist education

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

	Therapist	Behavioral Therapist
Most common degree	Bachelor's Degree, 47%	Bachelor's Degree, 70%
Most common major	Psychology	Psychology
Most common college	California State University - Long Beach	California State University - Long Beach

Therapist vs behavioral therapist demographics

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

	Therapist	Behavioral Therapist
Average age	41	39
Gender ratio	Male, 24.4% Female, 75.6%	Male, 23.6% Female, 76.4%
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, 11.4% Unknown, 4.6% Hispanic or Latino, 15.4% Asian, 4.6% White, 63.2% American Indian and Alaska Native, 0.9%
LGBT Percentage	12%	12%

Differences between therapist and behavioral 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.

Behavioral therapist example responsibilities.

Manage behavioral program for each client assign (CPI training).
Modele self-help and independent skills to assist autistic and developmentally delay children achieving their establish goals.
Assist the BCBA in assessing new clients, supervising line therapists, providing parent training, and formulating client specific programs.
Analyze and interpret results through graphing data collect from individual sessions.
Work collaboratively with BCBA's and direct line staff to ensure care plan and procedures are being implement consistently and uniformly.
Communicate with school administration, school teacher's and teaching assistants with helping create IEP's and behavior plans for individuals.

Therapist vs behavioral therapist skills

Common therapist skills

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

Common behavioral therapist skills

Autism, 15%
Social Work, 12%
Behavior Analysis, 11%
Patients, 10%
Provide ABA, 6%
Applied Behavior Analysis, 5%

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Therapist
Therapist vs Behavioral Therapist

Updated January 8, 2025

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