Top 12 Therapy Skills to Put on Your Resume
In the competitive field of therapy, standing out to potential employers is crucial, and one of the surest ways to do it is by showing a strong, balanced set of therapy skills on your resume. Below you’ll find the top 12 therapy skills that can sharpen your resume and catch hiring managers’ attention across a range of clinical settings.
Therapy Skills
- CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy)
- DBT (Dialectical Behavior Therapy)
- EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing)
- ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy)
- MI (Motivational Interviewing)
- ERP (Exposure and Response Prevention)
- SFBT (Solution-Focused Brief Therapy)
- Play Therapy
- Narrative Therapy
- Gestalt Therapy
- Family Systems
- Psychodynamic
1. CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy)
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) focuses on spotting and reshaping unhelpful thoughts and behaviors to change patterns that drive distress. It leans on practical tools, problem-solving, and measurable goals to help people build durable coping skills.
Why It's Important
CBT matters because it’s strongly evidence-based and teaches people to challenge distortions, build healthier habits, and take charge of their responses. The result: better functioning, clearer thinking, and steadier mood.
How to Improve CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) Skills
Sharper CBT comes from practice, structure, and feedback. Try these:
Integrate Technology: Use CBT apps or thought logs to track triggers, beliefs, and behaviors between sessions. Consistency turns skills into reflexes.
Tailor to the Individual: Adapt worksheets, exposure ladders, and behavioral experiments to each person’s culture, values, and learning style.
Incorporate Mindfulness: Weave in present-moment awareness to slow reactivity and make cognitive work stick.
Ongoing Training for Therapists: Refresh skills with workshops, supervision, and structured curricula from reputable CBT training bodies.
Use Homework Wisely: Keep assignments small, clear, and relevant. Review them every session to reinforce effort and progress.
Strengthen Alliance: A collaborative stance and transparent goal-setting make the work feel safe and doable.
Measure Progress: Use brief measures and clear targets. Adjust plans quickly when data shows drift.
How to Display CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) Skills on Your Resume
2. DBT (Dialectical Behavior Therapy)
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) blends CBT with mindfulness and acceptance strategies. It teaches four core skill sets: emotion regulation, distress tolerance, interpersonal effectiveness, and mindfulness. It’s well known for helping with borderline personality disorder, self-harm, chronic suicidality, and other conditions with intense affect swings.
Why It's Important
DBT gives clients a toolkit to ride out painful emotions without making things worse. Less chaos, fewer crises, stronger relationships.
How to Improve DBT (Dialectical Behavior Therapy) Skills
Level up through disciplined practice and community:
Enhance Skills Through Training: Attend advanced DBT workshops and recognized certification programs to sharpen fidelity and nuance.
Use Consultation Teams: Join or build a consultation team to maintain adherence, prevent drift, and solve tough clinical problems together.
Leverage Digital Tools: Encourage skills app use and in-the-moment diary cards to bridge sessions.
Stay Current: Read emerging outcomes research and protocol updates. Integrate findings deliberately.
Personal Practice: Practice mindfulness and distress tolerance yourself. Modeling matters.
How to Display DBT (Dialectical Behavior Therapy) Skills on Your Resume
3. EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing)
EMDR is a structured therapy that helps people process traumatic memories using bilateral stimulation (eye movements, taps, or tones). The aim: reduce distress, update beliefs, and restore a felt sense of safety.
Why It's Important
It can rapidly soften the emotional charge of trauma memories while strengthening adaptive information. Many clients move from stuck to steady without lengthy retelling.
How to Improve EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) Skills
Make EMDR safer, cleaner, and more effective:
- Continuous Training: Pursue EMDRIA-accredited trainings and consultation to deepen competence and case conceptualization.
- Client Preparation: Spend time on stabilization, informed consent, and resourcing so processing runs smoothly.
- Customization: Calibrate speed, modality, and target selection to tolerance and readiness. Flexibility protects momentum.
- Blend Thoughtfully: Integrate CBT, compassion work, or mindfulness to address residual symptoms and reinforce gains.
- Use Technology When Helpful: Structured EMDR software and telehealth tools can standardize pacing and tracking.
How to Display EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) Skills on Your Resume
4. ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy)
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) teaches people to open up to difficult experiences, step out of mental traps, and move toward what matters. Six processes anchor it: acceptance, cognitive defusion, present-moment awareness, self-as-context, values, and committed action.
Why It's Important
ACT builds psychological flexibility. When life throws curveballs, clients can still act in line with their values instead of getting swallowed by struggle.
How to Improve ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy) Skills
Go deeper, then go flexible:
Master the Core Processes: Study the model until the pieces click together naturally in session.
Train Regularly: Learn through workshops, supervised practice, and peer groups focused on ACT.
Practice Mindfulness: Daily. Short, honest sits. Bring the same stance into the room.
Seek Supervision: Consult with experienced ACT clinicians. Feedback sharpens timing and metaphor use.
Use ACT Tools: Metaphors, experiential exercises, and tailored worksheets—chosen for the person, not the protocol.
Stay Creative: Let values guide interventions. Rigidity is the enemy.
Reflect: Review session tapes or notes. Track where fusion, avoidance, or misaligned targets derailed progress.
How to Display ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy) Skills on Your Resume
5. MI (Motivational Interviewing)
Motivational Interviewing (MI) is a collaborative style that strengthens a person’s own motivation and commitment to change. Widely used for substance use and health behaviors, but it fits anywhere ambivalence stalls progress.
Why It's Important
It draws out change talk, lowers resistance, and turns goals into the client’s goals—not the therapist’s agenda.
How to Improve MI (Motivational Interviewing) Skills
Precision plus empathy:
Active Learning: Train with experienced MI instructors and get coded feedback on your sessions.
Reflective Listening: Aim for complex reflections. Spend more time evoking than advising.
Develop Discrepancy: Gently highlight gaps between current actions and core values.
Roll with Resistance: Avoid argument. Reframe, reflect, and keep autonomy front and center.
Build Self-Efficacy: Affirm strengths. Spotlight past wins.
Use Open Questions: Invite elaboration that uncovers motivations beneath the surface.
Seek Supervision: Regular consultation and MITI-coded feedback accelerate growth.
Self-Reflection: Notice your righting reflex and slow it down.
Stay Updated: Read current, peer-reviewed MI research and case applications.
Practice Groups: Role-play frequently. Repetition builds fluency.
How to Display MI (Motivational Interviewing) Skills on Your Resume
6. ERP (Exposure and Response Prevention)
ERP is a frontline therapy for OCD and related anxiety disorders. Clients intentionally face feared cues while refraining from compulsions or safety behaviors. Over time, distress drops and control returns.
Why It's Important
Because avoidance feeds anxiety. ERP breaks that loop, improving functioning and quality of life, often dramatically.
How to Improve ERP (Exposure and Response Prevention) Skills
Precision and pacing matter:
Gradual Exposure: Build hierarchies from tolerable to tough. Win small, then stretch.
Consistent Practice: Daily, brief exposures beat occasional marathons. Homework is non-negotiable.
Personalization: Target obsessions and rituals with surgical specificity. No generic lists.
Support System: Coach family on reducing accommodation and reinforcing approach behaviors.
Mindfulness Techniques: Teach clients to allow anxiety to rise and fall without rituals.
Cognitive Restructuring: When helpful, challenge overestimation of threat and intolerance of uncertainty.
Feedback and Adjustment: Review SUDS, refine steps, and troubleshoot blocks continuously.
Relapse Prevention: Plan for slips. Normalize them. Keep a maintenance hierarchy ready.
For deeper guidance, look to established organizations and clinical guidelines focused on OCD and exposure-based care.
How to Display ERP (Exposure and Response Prevention) Skills on Your Resume
7. SFBT (Solution-Focused Brief Therapy)
Solution-Focused Brief Therapy zeroes in on what’s working and what’s wanted. It’s future-oriented, goal-driven, and grounded in client strengths rather than problem archaeology.
Why It's Important
It’s efficient, empowering, and pragmatic—especially useful when time is short or problems are tightly scoped.
How to Improve SFBT (Solution-Focused Brief Therapy) Skills
Clean questions, crisp goals:
Practice Active Listening: Track language carefully. Mirror preferred futures and exceptions.
Master the Miracle Question: Help clients vividly picture the “after” so steps become obvious.
Build on Successes: Amplify exceptions and prior wins to fuel momentum.
Use Scaling Questions: Pin down current position, next step, and signs of progress.
Keep Learning: Workshops, supervision, and deliberate practice sharpen timing and phrasing.
Thoughtful Tech Use: Digital homework, brief check-ins, and goal trackers sustain gains between sessions.
How to Display SFBT (Solution-Focused Brief Therapy) Skills on Your Resume
8. Play Therapy
Play therapy uses the language of children—play—to surface feelings, practice skills, and heal. It meets kids where they are, at their pace, without forcing adult words onto big experiences.
Why It's Important
It offers safety and structure for expression. Through play, children can process trauma, build regulation, and learn social problem-solving.
How to Improve Play Therapy Skills
Grounded, gentle, deliberate:
Continuing Education: Pursue training through recognized play therapy organizations and certified programs.
Cultural Competency: Match materials and metaphors to each child’s cultural world.
Therapeutic Relationship: Prioritize attunement, warmth, and consistent boundaries.
Environment: Curate a safe, well-organized room with expressive, sensory, and symbolic play options.
Parental Involvement: Coach caregivers to reinforce skills and routines at home.
Reflective Practice: Use supervision, process notes, and outcome tracking to keep improving.
Evidence-Based Methods: Integrate structured approaches (e.g., TF-CBT components when appropriate) to complement nondirective play.
How to Display Play Therapy Skills on Your Resume
9. Narrative Therapy
Narrative Therapy separates the person from the problem and invites clients to re-author their stories. Skills, values, and knowledge take center stage while problem-saturated plots lose power.
Why It's Important
It restores agency. People step out of stuck identities and into preferred ways of living.
How to Improve Narrative Therapy Skills
Be curious, not certain:
Continuing Education: Study contemporary narrative therapy literature and case examples to diversify your questions and maps.
Integrate Multicultural Perspectives: Invite community, culture, and context into every story.
Use Digital Tools Thoughtfully: Telehealth platforms, shared documents, and narrative exercises can extend the work beyond the room.
Deepen Collaboration: Treat clients as co-authors. Language choices matter—ask, don’t assume.
Feedback-Informed Practice: Check in often about fit, pace, and relevance. Adjust quickly.
How to Display Narrative Therapy Skills on Your Resume
10. Gestalt Therapy
Gestalt therapy emphasizes present-moment awareness, responsibility, and the contexts that shape experience. Through experiential work, clients notice what’s happening now—thoughts, sensations, behaviors—and experiment with new ways of being.
Why It's Important
Insight is embodied, not just intellectual. By integrating parts of self, people move toward authenticity and choice.
How to Improve Gestalt Therapy Skills
Keep it experiential, keep it safe:
Integrate Awareness Practices: Short mindfulness or grounding exercises can sharpen here-and-now contact.
Use Creative Experiments: Role-plays, empty-chair work, and movement experiments deepen insight and integration.
Invest in Training: Ongoing coursework and supervised practice refine timing, ethics, and cultural responsiveness.
Thoughtful Teletherapy: Adapt experiments for remote sessions with clear structure and consent.
Structured Feedback: Elicit reactions to experiments and co-design the next step.
How to Display Gestalt Therapy Skills on Your Resume
11. Family Systems
Family Systems Therapy views symptoms in the context of interaction patterns. The work targets cycles, roles, boundaries, and rules that shape behavior across the whole system.
Why It's Important
Change sticks when the system shifts. Healthier boundaries, clearer communication, and more flexible roles support everyone.
How to Improve Family Systems Skills
See the dance, not just the dancers:
Identify Patterns: Map triangles, coalitions, and escalation loops. Intervene where leverage is highest.
Enhance Communication: Teach evidence-based skills for expressing needs and listening non-defensively.
Set Boundaries: Clarify limits and responsibilities to reduce enmeshment or disengagement.
Collaborative Problem-Solving: Coach families to co-create solutions and agree on experiments to test at home.
Build Empathy: Use perspective-taking exercises to thaw blame and strengthen connection.
Different models (structural, strategic, Bowenian, and more) offer routes to similar goals. Choose based on fit, culture, and safety.
How to Display Family Systems Skills on Your Resume
12. Psychodynamic
Psychodynamic therapy explores how unconscious patterns and past relationships color present life. Through insight, the therapeutic relationship, and working through conflicts, clients gain freedom from old knots.
Why It's Important
It creates lasting change by addressing roots, not just branches—shifts in self-understanding that ripple outward.
How to Improve Psychodynamic Skills
Depth with direction:
Strengthen the Alliance: Prioritize trust, empathy, and clear boundaries. The relationship is the instrument.
Ongoing Training and Supervision: Case conferences, reading groups, and seasoned supervision hone formulation and timing.
Integrative Stance: Borrow from CBT, mindfulness, or attachment work when it serves the case formulation.
Work with Transference and Countertransference: Notice, name gently, and use these dynamics to illuminate patterns safely.
Set Clear Goals: Define aims and revisit them. Depth doesn’t mean drifting.
Encourage Reflection: Between-session journaling or mindful pauses can accelerate insight.
How to Display Psychodynamic Skills on Your Resume
