For those who are outside the field, trying to differentiate between a psychotherapist, counselor, psychologist, and psychiatrist is often difficult.
The truth is that there are several significant and distinct differences between the roles of psychotherapy, counseling, psychology, and psychiatry. They also tend to address different kinds of problems even though some of their work often overlaps considerably.
Continue reading below to learn a bit about these four terms:
Table of Contents
What is Psychotherapy?
Psychotherapy is done in different ways, such as individual, couple, family, and group psychotherapy. All of these are ways to help people overcome their emotional problems, troublesome habits, relationship problems, and stress.
Psychotherapy also has many different approaches or known as “talking therapies.” These include:
- Arts therapies
- Cognitive behavioral therapies
- Integrative and humanistic psychotherapies
- Hypno-psychotherapy
- Play Therapies
- Psychodynamic therapies
- Psychoanalytic therapies
- Family and systemic psychotherapy
A psychotherapist may be a counselor, psychologist, or psychiatrist who has undergone additional psychotherapy specialist training.
Many psychotherapists today don’t have backgrounds in counseling, psychology, and psychiatry but have undergone in-depth training in the field. Most psychotherapists also have several post-graduate degrees or diplomas under their belt like a master’s degree.
There are also courses where psychotherapists can continue with their academic career while studying for a psychotherapy specialist doctorate.
What is Counseling?
Psychotherapy and counseling are interchangeable. But counseling is often called a goal-setting short-term therapy. Psychotherapy, on the other hand, is usually referred to as long-term therapy.
Many counselors work in universities, colleges, and schools. Some also work for occupational health departments of large organizations that offer their employees in-house counseling.
The majority of the work in counseling is focused on the solution and short-term. Many educational training establishments don’t accept students younger than 28 years old if they wish to train to become a psychotherapist.
The explanation for this is that students should already have enough experiences in life for them to practice as therapists. Theoretically speaking, you should already have more life experiences if you are older.
Meanwhile, students who wish to train as psychologists can study psychology right away after leaving secondary school.
What is Psychology?
Studying people is what psychology is all about: their thoughts, actions, reactions, and interactions. The main focus of psychology is the different aspects of human behavior and the motivations, feelings, and thoughts underlying these behaviors.
The initial concern of psychology as a discipline is the mind and its normal functioning. It has explored areas like remembering, learning, and children’s normal psychological development. Psychology is among the fastest-growing subjects in universities and is now becoming more available in many colleges and schools.
Psychologists deal with the motivation and workings of the mind, and can also specialize in different areas like occupational and educational psychology and mental health work. It is important to keep in mind that psychologists often lack medical qualifications and only a small population of people who study for degrees in psychology will get the chance to work with actual patients or clients.
What is Psychiatry?
Psychiatry refers to the study, diagnosis, prevention, and management of mental disorders. A psychiatrist is a medical doctor who specializes in psychiatry and it takes four years to complete most postgraduate studies.
Psychiatrists are also the only professionals allowed to prescribe medication to their patients or clients. They usually combine a broad general caseload with an area of research and special expertise.