What's the difference between a psychiatrist and a psychologist? How are master's level counselors different from doctoral level counselors? Is a psychotherapist the same thing as a psychologist? Answers here!
(MD, PhD) A psychiatrist is, first and foremost, a medical doctor. Psychiatrists go to medical school just like any other physician. And just as a pediatrician specializes in the treatment of children or a cardiologist specializes in the treatment of heart problems, a psychiatrist specializes in the medical treatment of biological problems in the brain. Because early practitioners of psychology were all psychiatrists, that is, medical doctors, people confuse today's psychologists (who primarily do therapy) with today's psychiatrists (who primarily prescribe medication).
Like many inaccuracies in psychology, the tendency to call psychologists psychiatrists can probably be traced back to Freud. As a Jew in the mid- to late-1800s, Freud didn't have a lot of career options, so he chose the one he thought would get him where he wanted, which was psychology. He studied medicine under a physiologist; when he began publishing his own ideas in the late 1800s, he drew both admiration and disdain from the medical community.
(PhD or PsyD) Psychologists are trained under one of two models, the Boulder model (PhD) or the Vail model (PsyD). Decades after the establishment of the second model, the PsyD, the politics around them can still be hot.
The PhD - The Boulder model was established in 1949 thanks to a conference in Boulder, Colorado, where the idea of a psychologist being the one who specializes in psychotherapy, rather than a psychiatrist, was born. PhD students in psychology are expected to be research scientists as well as psychotherapists. They are required to complete quantitative research to finish their degrees, and to continue to contribute research during their careers.
The PsyD - The Vail model was established in 1973 during a conference in Vail, Colorado, and came about in response to the growing idea that psychology had grown enough as a field to warrant a professional degree comparable to the MD, JD, and other "practitioner" degrees. The focus in PsyD programs is on creating clinicians. Students may or may not do research themselves, but all PsyD graduates are expected to be intelligent consumers of research.
There is a list of divisions in the American Psychological Association, established as the areas have become big enough to warrant their own chapters.
(MSW or LISW, usually) The Social Work degree is typically a Master's-level degree, though there are Doctoral-level and Bachelor's-level social work degrees. Social workers do a variety of different jobs, though the work most commonly associated with the degree is helping people deal with and improve their lives, with particular emphasis on the social environment. Some become independent practitioners who do work that's virtually indistinguishable from other master's-level counselors or even psychologists, but many work in social services settings.
(MA, MS) Counselors in psychology often do pretty much the same thing psychologists do, with a Master's degree. People often mistakenly think that master's-level practitioners are somehow inferior to doctoral-level practitioners, but this couldn't be farther from the truth.
Master's-level therapists in particular often have additional certifications, such as
, the Association for Addiction Professionals, lists eligibility requirements for national certification. "Psychotherapist" and "counselor" are generic terms that can be used by any one of these professionals. What can cause problems is that they're not policed, so pretty much anybody can use them, even if they don't have professional training. So anyone with a credit card can get listed online or in the yellow pages as a "psychotherapist," and nobody can stop him or her.
How to tell the difference between someone who's legitimate and someone who's anointed himself with the title? Look for the word "licensed" or one of the acronyms that indicates that someone has been licensed in professional psychology. Some of the most common examples:
- National Certified Addiction Counselor - these professionals also have three levels of certification: NCAC I, NCAC II, and MAC (Master Addiction Counselor) The CounselingSeattle website has a great dictionary of terms used by psychological professionals. You'll find many terms that refer to different types of counselors under C and L