What is the difference between psychologists and counselors

Finding that healthy and appropriate balance is something that I have found to be a day-to-day challenge. Juggling different roles also presents a challenge. In addition to working as a clinical psychologist, I am also a mother of three little children all under the age of seven. The coordination of schedules, homework, doctor appointments, playdates, and carpools keep my head swimming -- and that is before I add in seeing patients.

I sometimes struggle with the constant switching of hats from psychologist to mom, but with time management strategies and leaving room for self-care and a lot of support, it can be truly rewarding. What do you find most rewarding about a career as a psychologist? By far, the most rewarding thing about my career as a psychologist is seeing my patients improve. There is nothing better than a patient who once had crippling social anxiety begin dating, or a person with severe depression re-enrolling in school and finishing their semester with a 4.

Seeing a patient with low self-esteem and toxic relational patterns finally understand and change their behaviors is such a satisfying thing to observe. Also, it is extremely gratifying when patients who have been in therapy with me for some time permanently incorporate our therapeutic language into their everyday problem-solving. What advice would you give prospective students considering pursuing a career as a psychologist? First, make sure you thoroughly research the programs that interest you.

Are they APA-accredited? Ask current and former students about their experiences and opinions. This will give you a better feel for the culture of the program itself. Ask about the programs' available practicum sites. Most importantly, ask about their predoctoral internship match rates. Do more than just read their online material. Second, while you don't necessarily need to know the nuances of your specialty at this point in your journey, it may be helpful to narrow down a few criteria.

For example, do you want to steer more towards academia, clinical application, or both? There is a common misconception that all Psy. This is not always the case. My Psy. Make sure to narrow down the general population you wish to work with i. Know that the next years are a major commitment. I watched many of my friends take lucrative jobs, get married, and have children while I was still studying in graduate school. I would be lying if I didn't say I felt like I put my life on hold.

But, in the end, I realized I had not. It's just that my path to get where I wanted to be was a bit longer than theirs, and there is nothing wrong with that. It is a long journey, but a rewarding one in the end. In the words of my mentor, "If it were easy, everyone would do it. Before committing to a specific level of education, anyone interested in becoming a mental health professional should review some of the common career outcomes. Keep in mind that these career options and salaries vary based on a combination of education, experience, location, and licensure.

This common position for counselors sees professionals working closely with individuals who suffer from drug addiction, mental health issues, or other behavioral problems. Substance abuse counselors work in residential treatment centers, outpatient treatment centers, and detention centers. Licensed Mental Health Counselor.

Licensed mental health counselors work in clinics, hospitals, and patients' homes. Some may also work in private practice, depending on scope of practice laws in their states. These counselors earn a license to work with patients that suffer from depression, substance abuse, anxiety, or any number of other issues affecting mental health.

School Counselor. These counselors help students with academic and social concerns. Counselors work with students to develop career goals, identify potential issues affecting success in school, and help students develop new habits. Marriage and Family Therapist. They will always provide extensive training in psychotherapy. A provider who holds a PsyD in psychology is almost identical to the above PhD. They may provide therapy as well.

But someone with a PsyD focuses more on clinical practice and less on research. They include psychotherapy, diagnosing mental health conditions, and performing biopsychosocial assessments.

Clinical social workers are not trained to administer psychological and personality tests. Social workers have skills and theories to challenge social injustice and change systems of care. An MSW degree can lead to many different career paths in the public health and medical fields. There are different levels to the social work licensure process.

These include psychotherapy, diagnosing mental health disorders, and performing biopsychosocial assessments. They may also study psychological testing, ethics, research, cultural perspectives, and psychological development. There are different levels to the professional counselor license process. They may have extra training in a wider variety of counseling approaches. They may also have deeper knowledge of histories and theories. In some states, they can do the same as a clinical psychologist can.

There are a lot of similarities between this role and clinical counselors—so many, in fact, that the Bureau of Labor Statistics groups the two together.

However, an MFT places a focus on treating couples and families. Each one of these professional roles is clearly defined. Practitioners have different educational requirements, job duties and licensing obligations to follow.

Even with the retraining required, even with the relicensing involved… some people just have a hunger for picking up the skills to help patients from every angle. In the context of human services especially, they only care that someone is reaching out to help them. So what if someone wants to call themselves a counselor? Well, it depends on the state. In some states, the law protects the title. These are Title Act states.

In other states, the law prevents practitioners from engaging in the actual practices of counseling, therapy or psychology without a license, no matter what they call themselves. These are Practice Act states. Oregon is an example of a practice act state, and has explicit language describing the requirements for licensure, and the restrictions for anybody who is unlicensed:. A The person is a licensee, registered intern or graduate student pursuing a graduate degree in counseling or marriage and family therapy; or.

B The person is exempted from the licensing requirements of ORS Chapter of the Oregon Revised Statutes of governing the titles and practices restricted to licensees in counseling or marriage and family therapy. A practice act is more aggressive in protecting the public, focused on reducing mistreatment and malpractice rather than strictly trying to stop misrepresentation and the misuse of professional titles.

Therapists, counselors and psychologists all deal with issues of mental health and wellness, specializing in different types of treatment techniques and often enough, entirely different kinds of issues. Why do you need scientific and experimental expertise as someone who provides mental health treatment? Because mental health is always a moving target. Each patient is unique. Your ability to shift your approach and use the scientific method to nail down what works is crucial in all these professions.

It turns out that what works to help people, works, no matter what you call the person doing the job. A wrench turns the same way for a guy working on a classic GTO as it does for an aerospace technician working on a jet engine.

If you are looking for a father figure that unites the history of all three of these professions, you go back to Wilhelm Wundt. Wundt brought the science of psychology out of the realm of philosophy. His work is the basis for the evidence-driven, experimental approach that therapy, counseling and psychology all rely on today.

Mentors like Ernst Weber and Gustav Fechner set him to work on some of the initial experimentation in sensory perception and measurement that got him interested in psychological sciences. In , Wundt opened a lab at the University devoted to psychological studies.

He attracted students from all over the world, which is part of why his influence is so great in the field today. The psychology family tree in almost every country reaches back directly to his lab. That means you find practitioners in every role relying on the same kind of treatment techniques. Each profession might gravitate toward one or more of these kinds of therapies, but every role can use them where appropriate. The phone rings at the offices of therapists, counselors and psychologists for the same kinds of mental health problems every day: depression, anxiety, anger management, addiction.

There are some basic tasks, like patient assessment, crisis intervention and other basics that every competent mental health professional can handle. But when it comes to the types of issues they treat, you start to see more differences between the jobs.

Everyone is familiar with marriage counselors or marriage therapists. And though it may be unusual to see a marriage psychologist, they do exist. For the most severe mental health issues, you need to call in the big guns, residency-trained doctorate-prepared psychologists with specialized expertise. Family therapists get the bulk of work in couples counseling even if counselors could competently deal with the same issues. None of these are an all-or-nothing deal, however.

There are many, but if you look carefully, you can trace them all back to these core distinctions of philosophy:. Each of them has influenced the others along the way. And just because they approach mental health problems from different perspectives does not necessarily mean they arrive at different conclusions.

There is an evolutionary arc toward what works. That can make the day-to-day functions of a typical therapist, counselor or psychologist appear very similar in practice. A screwdriver is still a screwdriver no matter whose hand is turning it. But the different perspectives from which they approach problems are an important degree of difference. Those different world views start to take root in the paths to education you follow to enter each profession. And as you look at the history of how each of these roles emerged as a distinct profession, you can begin to see how those perspectives came to be part of the package for each one.

It also serves as some of the roots for counseling and therapy work, all strung around each other and weaving together at various points in their evolution. Some of the earliest philosophical work from cultures as varied as Greek, Indian, and Chinese, explored the questions of the human mind.

From Wundt through Freud, William James, John Watson, and then hundreds of other psychologists worldwide, the science evolved quickly and spread widely into every aspect of human behavior and cognition.

The focus of each of them was on science and a scientific understanding of cognitive and behavioral issues. The depth and breadth of those roots means that psychology has a tendency to look to theory and data when it comes to assessing mental issues. A mental health counselor, on the other hand, might just have you make subtle adjustments until things start running more smoothly.

The practical, get-it-done perspective of mental health counselors comes from the origins of the profession in vocational and school counseling. Action-oriented, used to viewing individuals based on their own strengths and weaknesses, you can see how counselors naturally became problem-solvers. They started off working with people trying to fit into a changing society by finding them the right roles to fill and eventually applied the same techniques to dealing with more personal, individualized problems.

Right around the same time as thousands of wounded and traumatized soldiers were coming back from the First World War, society came to embrace the idea that individuals with mental health issues could and should be treated and assisted in finding a place in society. But the attitudes that motivated them to help individuals, and to see them as unique and worthy of a place in society, never left.

Psychologists must also be registered to work in Australia. Counselling is typically concerned with immediate and practical issues such as processing grief or anger, helping the client identify options when making important personal or professional decisions, or building better interpersonal or communication skills. A counsellor might work with a client to learn how to better manage conflicts in relationships or to clarify his or her values on a particular topic. Counselling is typically short-term.

Psychotherapy is used in long-term treatment of mental illness and to help clients conduct an intensive and extensive examination of their psychological history.

Psychotherapy focuses on helping clients understand their lives in a profoundly reflective manner. Although psychotherapy may use many of the same techniques as those used in counselling, it goes much deeper in an attempt to uncover the root cause of problems. For example, childhood abuse may result in deep-seated convictions of inferiority or anger.

Counsellors typically work in fields such as marriage and family counselling, drug and alcohol rehabilitation, or career and guidance fields.