Skip to content
Singulariki

Therapy and Counseling

Knowledge · O*NET work requirement

Knowledge of principles, methods, and procedures for diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation of physical and mental dysfunctions, and for career counseling and guidance.

In the O*NET occupational database, Therapy and Counseling is an area of knowledge that work requires. O*NET rates how important it is (1–5) and what level of it a job needs (0–7) for every U.S. occupation. It is rated as important (3 or higher) in 88 of 894 occupations.

Breadth here means how widely O*NET rates this area of knowledge as important across occupations — not that it is rare, high-paying, or currently in employer demand.

Occupations that rely most on Therapy and Counseling

Ranked by O*NET importance to the occupation (1–5). Bars are sized against the 1–5 scale; the level column is what depth of the area of knowledge the job needs (0–7).

Occupation Importance Score Level
Art Therapists 5.0 6.9
Clinical and Counseling Psychologists 5.0 6.9
Marriage and Family Therapists 5.0 6.8
Mental Health Counselors 5.0 7.0
Substance Abuse and Behavioral Disorder Counselors 5.0 6.5
Psychiatrists 4.9 6.7
Music Therapists 4.9 6.3
Mental Health and Substance Abuse Social Workers 4.8 6.6
Advanced Practice Psychiatric Nurses 4.7 6.7
Clinical Neuropsychologists 4.7 6.3
Healthcare Social Workers 4.7 6.6
Occupational Therapists 4.7 6.0
Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Physicians 4.6 6.0
Audiologists 4.6 5.6
Physical Therapists 4.6 5.2
Family Medicine Physicians 4.6 5.4
Neuropsychologists 4.6 6.6
Recreational Therapists 4.5 5.8
Naturopathic Physicians 4.5 5.6
School Psychologists 4.5 6.1
Physician Assistants 4.5 6.0
Pediatricians, General 4.5 6.0
Occupational Therapy Aides 4.4 4.0
General Internal Medicine Physicians 4.4 6.0
Genetic Counselors 4.3 5.2
Social Work Teachers, Postsecondary 4.3 5.8
Physical Therapist Assistants 4.2 3.8
Hearing Aid Specialists 4.2 4.8
Child, Family, and School Social Workers 4.1 5.1
Rehabilitation Counselors 4.1 5.3
Psychiatric Technicians 4.1 5.1
Dietitians and Nutritionists 4.1 4.9
Emergency Medicine Physicians 4.0 5.5
Nurse Practitioners 4.0 5.7
Hospitalists 4.0 5.8
Neurologists 4.0 5.4
Probation Officers and Correctional Treatment Specialists 4.0 5.0
Clinical Nurse Specialists 4.0 5.0
Orthotists and Prosthetists 4.0 4.7
Speech-Language Pathologists 4.0 5.1

Showing the top 40 of 88 occupations where this is important.

How AI is used by roles that need Therapy and Counseling

This area of knowledge is not itself "being automated" — but we can look at the roles for which O*NET rates it important and ask how those people actually use AI. This rolls the Anthropic Economic Index per-role signal up across those roles (importance-weighted). 62.5% of the 88 roles where this is important carry observed AI-usage data (55 roles).

Across those roles, 57.0% of AI conversations are people working with AI and 25.9% hand a task to AI , with an average autonomy of 3.77 / 5.

Collaboration pattern Share What it means
learning 32.7% you ask AI to explain or teach
directive 23.1% AI does it; you give the instruction
task iteration 21.5% you and AI go back and forth
validation 2.9% you do it; AI checks your work
feedback loop 2.8% AI does it, then adjusts from your feedback

Roles behind this signal

The roles where this area of knowledge is most important and that also have the most AEI data. "Works with AI" is the role's share of conversations that augment rather than automate.

Occupation Importance Works with AI Autonomy
Social Work Teachers, Postsecondary 4.3 67.2% 3.5/5
Educational, Guidance, School, and Vocational Counselors 3.6 70.6% 4.0/5
Psychology Teachers, Postsecondary 3.8 66.2% 4.0/5
Recreation and Fitness Studies Teachers, Postsecondary 3.1 66.2% 3.3/5
Health Specialties Teachers, Postsecondary 3.3 66.2% 3.5/5
Nursing Instructors and Teachers, Postsecondary 3.8 65.8% 3.8/5
Mental Health Counselors 5.0 70.6% 4.0/5
Clergy 3.8 60.3% 4.0/5
Dietitians and Nutritionists 4.1 70.2% 4.0/5
Elementary School Teachers, Except Special Education 3.3 49.7% 4.0/5
Advanced Practice Psychiatric Nurses 4.7 66.7% 4.0/5
Marriage and Family Therapists 5.0 65.6% 4.0/5

Source: Anthropic Economic Index (2026-01-15-v4-plus-2025-03-27-v2) over a sample of Claude.ai Free and Pro conversations — not all AI tools and not the whole workforce. Shares are of observed conversations, weighted by how important this area of knowledge is to each role; some conversations are left unclassified by Anthropic's taxonomy, so shares need not sum to 100.

Industries that concentrate this

Where Therapy and Counseling matters most across the economy. Employment reach is the share of an industry's workers in occupations that significantly rely on Therapy and Counseling (O*NET importance ≥ 3 of 5). Concentration compares that reach to the national average industry, so a value above 1× means the requirement is more pervasive here than across the economy as a whole.

Nationally, about 9.3% of workers are in occupations that significantly rely on Therapy and Counseling (measured across 45 industries).

Sectors with the most such workers

Sector Workers Employment reach
Health Care and Social Assistance 8,674,030 37.5%
Educational Services 2,925,160 21.4%
Administrative and Support and Waste Management and Remediation Services 1,053,680 11.7%
Other Services (except Public Administration) 146,250 3.3%
Retail Trade 93,890 0.6%
Management of Companies and Enterprises 76,000 2.7%
Accommodation and Food Services 68,240 0.5%
Finance and Insurance 67,780 1.1%
Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services 56,990 0.5%
Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation 56,400 2.1%
Real Estate and Rental and Leasing 32,400 1.4%
Manufacturing 16,610 0.1%

Industries where it is most concentrated

Industry Level Concentration Employment reach
Offices of Physical, Occupational and Speech Therapists, and Audiologists National industry 7.46× 69.4%
Offices of Mental Health Practitioners (except Physicians) National industry 46.5%
Offices of Chiropractors National industry 4.89× 45.5%
Residential Mental Health and Substance Abuse Facilities National industry 4.41× 41.0%
Outpatient Mental Health and Substance Abuse Centers National industry 4.22× 39.2%
Health Care and Social Assistance Sector 4.03× 37.5%
Offices of Optometrists National industry 2.71× 25.2%
Educational Services Sector 2.3× 21.4%
Residential Intellectual and Developmental Disability Facilities National industry 1.87× 17.4%
Administrative and Support and Waste Management and Remediation Services Sector 1.26× 11.7%
Direct Health and Medical Insurance Carriers National industry 1.12× 10.4%
Temporary Help Services National industry 0.88× 8.2%

Reach is a measure of how widespread a requirement is across an industry's workforce, not how intensively any individual uses it. Sector worker counts come from BLS OEWS employment; the significance threshold and tool use come from O*NET. Industries shown by concentration are filtered to a real worker base so a tiny specialty cannot top the list on rounding.

Capabilities required by many of the same occupations — a measure of which skills, knowledge and abilities tend to travel together, not a judgment of similarity.

Capability Type Shared occupations
Psychology Knowledge 85
Medicine and Dentistry Knowledge 57
Sociology and Anthropology Knowledge 51
Biology Knowledge 44
Persuasion Cross-functional skill 70
Learning Strategies Basic skill 74
Instructing Cross-functional skill 80
Education and Training Knowledge 85
Service Orientation Cross-functional skill 87
Negotiation Cross-functional skill 53
Fluency of Ideas Ability 76
Systems Evaluation Cross-functional skill 56

Sources for this page

Every figure above traces to a named public dataset and the exact release below — not hand-written opinion. See the full methodology for what each measure does and does not mean.

Data compiled June 2, 2026. Figures are estimates, not advice.

Cite this page
Plain

Singulariki. "Therapy and Counseling." Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Built from O*NET 30.3; BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) May 2024; Census NAICS 2022; Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27). Accessed June 7, 2026. https://singulariki.com/knowledge/therapy-and-counseling

APA

Singulariki. (2026). Therapy and Counseling. Singulariki: a source-backed encyclopedia of work. Retrieved June 7, 2026, from https://singulariki.com/knowledge/therapy-and-counseling

BibTeX
@misc{singulariki-therapy-and-counseling,
  title  = {Therapy and Counseling},
  author = {{Singulariki}},
  year   = {2026},
  note   = {O*NET 30.3; BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS) May 2024; Census NAICS 2022; Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27). Accessed June 7, 2026},
  url    = {https://singulariki.com/knowledge/therapy-and-counseling}
}

Citations name the underlying public dataset releases — they reflect what this page is built from, not just the URL.