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Therapist Job Description

What does a Therapist do?

A therapist is a professional who provides guidance and support to clients experiencing mental health issues, emotional difficulties, or personal problems. They may use a variety of therapeutic techniques such as cognitive behavioural therapy, psychodynamic therapy or humanistic therapy to help their clients understand and overcome their problems. A therapist works collaboratively with their client to develop treatment plans, set goals and provide ongoing psychological support to achieve optimal mental health and wellbeing. They often work in private practice, schools, hospitals, or mental health clinics and may specialise in different areas such as addiction therapy, family therapy or marriage counselling.

Our Therapist job description includes the Therapist responsibilities, duties, skills, education, qualifications, and experience.

Therapist Example


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If you need an example job description for a Therapist download the one below, alternatively we have many other Healthcare job description samples and a job description library with over 3000 job descriptions templates that you can download for free.

What does a Therapist do?

A Therapist is a professional who provides psychological and emotional support to individuals, couples and families. The role involves understanding, empathy and a non-judgmental attitude. By exploring the thoughts and feelings of the client, the Therapist can help them to gain insight, develop self-awareness and build resilience. Therapists use a range of techniques to help their clients, including Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Psychodynamic Therapy, Person-Centred Therapy, and Solution Focused Brief Therapy. The goal of a Therapist is to help their clients to cope with and overcome psychological issues, identify and solve personal problems, and make positive changes in their life.

Therapist Role Purpose

The purpose of a Therapist is to provide support, guidance, and counselling to clients in order to help them cope with, and overcome, emotional, mental, or behavioural issues. Therapists work with clients to identify and understand problems and develop strategies to address them, such as exploring underlying causes and helping to develop skills to manage and reduce symptoms. Therapists may also provide advice and guidance to clients and their families, and refer them to other services if necessary.

Therapist Role

A Therapist is a health professional who provides support and guidance to individuals or groups in order to help them manage and overcome mental and emotional difficulties.

Therapist Duties

  • Provide counselling and psychotherapy services to individuals and groups
  • Develop treatment plans and goals in collaboration with clients
  • Engage in ongoing assessment of client progress
  • Provide crisis intervention services
  • Conduct individual and group psychotherapy sessions
  • Educate clients and families on mental health and wellness topics
  • Maintain accurate and up-to-date clinical documentation
  • Liaise with other health care professionals

Therapist Requirements

  • A relevant tertiary qualification in counselling or psychotherapy
  • Experience in providing therapy to individuals, couples and/or groups
  • A commitment to continuing professional development
  • The ability to maintain accurate records
  • Excellent interpersonal and communication skills

Therapist Skills

  • Empathy
  • Active Listening
  • Organisational Skills
  • Conflict Resolution
  • Problem Solving

Therapist Personal Traits

  • Empathetic
  • Good listener
  • Good communicator
  • Non-judgmental
  • Patient
  • Organised
  • Knowledgeable

How to write a Therapist Job Advert

Use our job advert template to write a job advert for posting on job sites and job boards. Our job advertising templates are carefully created to help you reach your audience and beat the competition to the best talent.

A job description informs the reader about a job, whereas a job advert’s main objective is to sell the job opportunity to attract as many suitable applicants possible. A job advert maybe the first touch-point a candidate has with your company so it is important to create a great impression.

Job Advertisements should enticing, so considering using short, exciting language which get the reader’s attention.

How to write a Therapist Job Description

To write a job description, we recommend starting with a job description template from our job description library, which contains examples for 800+ positions and professions. Our job description examples include a job summary with duties and responsibilities and skills and requirements, which can be personalised for your job vacancy.

Job Description Advice - Guidance on How to Personalise a Therapist Job Specification

The hiring process and recruiting new employees to fill your key roles requires a degree of personalisation if you are to attract the best employees in a competitive employment market. The right person for a crucial role or more senior roles will likely have other employers targeting them. As your job description will be the first point of contact, you need to nail your pitch and provide the best possible service.

Job Description Tips - Help on formatting a Therapist Job Specification

When creating your bespoke description and advert, you should cover and promote these points:

Job title: This should accurately reflect the role and include keywords that top talent might be using to search for jobs.

Job duties: The day to day duties, such as administrative tasks, which vary depending on the company and inform the candidate if they can complete the role.

Technical skills: These are the hard skills required through training, such as proficiency with Microsoft Office.

Soft skills: These include the interpersonal skills and general abilities the right candidates will possess. For example, the competency to prioritise multiple tasks, handle customer queries and customer complaints, work alone, or build a good relationship with coworkers.

The company's culture: Highlighting your company culture and values ensures employees thrive and find outstanding job satisfaction. Candidates that are not the right fit won’t waste their time completing the application process, meaning you can focus on qualified individuals and hire in a more timely manner.

Career progression: Including the career path will entice candidates looking for career growth. 

Training and development programs: Smaller companies may need employees with previous experience or provide educational assistance over internal training offered by larger organisations with more significant resources. 

Employee benefits: Compensation and benefits often fail to appear in job ads and while you may want to hold your cards close to your chest, failing to include them is a mistake. Consider answering common questions, such as working hours and paid leave. Researching the average salary for the role in these early stages will ensure you don’t waste your interviewer’s and the candidate’s time.

Skill gaps: Your company may need to bring in new skills beyond those required to complete the key role and duties. Thinking on an organisational level can be beneficial when contemplating skills diversity.

Legal requirements: Ensure your job advert and description does not ask for inappropriate or discriminatory personal details, such as age, marital status, or religion.

How to Hire a Therapist

Once you have selected your Job Description download it or convert it to a Job Advert. From here you can post/advertise your job across our network of job boards. If you wish to use the job description for a CV Template click through for advice and Convert to a CV

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