A mental health professional is a health care practitioner

Health care provider

A health care provider is an individual or an institution that provides preventive, curative, promotional or rehabilitative health care services in a systematic way to individuals, families or communities....

 who offers services for the purpose of improving an individual's mental health

Mental health

Mental health describes either a level of cognitive or emotional well-being or an absence of a mental disorder. From perspectives of the discipline of positive psychology or holism mental health may include an individual's ability to enjoy life and procure a balance between life activities and...

 or to treat mental illness

Mental illness

A mental disorder or mental illness is a psychological or behavioral pattern generally associated with subjective distress or disability that occurs in an individual, and which is not a part of normal development or culture. Such a disorder may consist of a combination of affective, behavioural,...

. This broad category includes psychiatrists, clinical psychologists, clinical social workers

Social work

Social Work is a professional and academic discipline that seeks to improve the quality of life and wellbeing of an individual, group, or community by intervening through research, policy, community organizing, direct practice, and teaching on behalf of those afflicted with poverty or any real or...

, psychiatric nurses, mental health counselor

Mental Health Counselor

Mental health counselors practice mental health counseling which is a dynamic, holistic, strengths-based and psychoeducational discipline born in the late 1970s when several mental health professionals realized that the master’s degree level counselors working in community settings lacked a...

s as well as many other professionals. These professionals often deal with the same illnesses, disorders, conditions, and issues; however, their scope of practice

Scope of Practice

Scope of Practice is a terminology used by national and state/provincial licensing boards for various professions that defines the procedures, actions, and processes that are permitted for the licensed individual. The scope of practice is limited to that which the law allows for specific education...

 differs. The most significant difference between mental health professionals are the laws regarding required education and training

Healthcare provider requisites

Healthcare provider requisites refer to the regulations used by countries to control the quality of individual healthcare workers practicing in their jurisdictions and to control the size of the health labour market...

 across the various professions.

Sources:

^Only in New Mexico and Louisiana, with limited rights in Indiana and Guam.
Mental health professionals exist to improve the mental health of individuals, couples, and families.