Should I go to a psychologist or a psychiatrist?
Various thoughts come to my mind when I hear the word “Therapist” and it confuses me. Who is a therapist and what do they do? Let’s understand this.
Therapists are mental health professionals who have been trained to provide counselling, treatment, and therapy to people to overcome their present challenges. A therapist is categorised based on the kind of treatment / services they offer:
- Counselling Psychologist
- A counselling psychologist is a mental health professional who works with clients on overcoming mental health concerns. They evaluate, diagnose, and treat conditions such as stress, anxiety, conflict, grief, or uncertainty about careers. Counselling psychologists bring a collaborative, developmental, multicultural, and wellness perspective to their research and practice. They work with many types of individuals, including those experiencing distress and difficulties associated with life events and transitions, decision-making, work/career/education, family and social relationships, and mental health and physical health concerns. In addition to remediation, counselling psychologists engage in prevention, psycho-education and advocacy.
- Clinical Psychologist
- A clinical psychologist is a mental health professional with highly specialised training in the diagnosis and psychological treatment of mental, behavioural, and emotional illnesses. Clinical psychologists use psychological techniques to treat patients and don't prescribe medication. They require M.Phil in clinical psychology and RCI licence to practise as a clinical psychologist. They are trained to manage people with mental health disorders on the severe spectrum of disorders, such as OCD, schizophrenia, psychosis, personality disorders, suicide amongst many.
- Psychotherapist:
- A psychotherapist helps an individual overcome depression, anxiety, psychosomatic concerns, child behavioural problems, marriage and relationship problems and any other clinical disorders. Psychotherapy, or talk therapy, is a way to help people with a broad variety of mental illnesses and emotional difficulties. Psychotherapy can help eliminate or control troubling symptoms so a person can function better and can increase well-being and healing. Problems helped by psychotherapy include difficulties in coping with daily life; the impact of trauma, medical illness or loss, like the death of a loved one; and specific mental disorders, like depression or anxiety. Psychotherapy may be used in combination with medication or other therapies.
- Psycho-Oncologist:
- A Psycho-oncologist is a professional who is trained to provide psychological services to cancer patients. Their focus is on emotional trauma faced by patients and their families. They help in dealing with uncertainty, loss and grief, coping strategies, build resilience and giving emotional support to family, caregivers and others.
- Psychiatrist:
- A psychiatrist is a medical practitioner who diagnoses and treats mental, emotional and behavioural disorders. He is trained in a medical college. They provide the medical intervention that is to treat patients with medications to rectify dysfunctions in behaviour arising from organic or bio-chemical causes.
To sum up, you have to write down how you have been feeling lately, your emotions, how people around you feel / react to your behaviour etc. Once that understanding is established, you will be in a better position to identify the kind of mental health professional who can help you. Example, If I am not able to cope up with day to day affairs which lead to burnout , I can speak to a counselling psychologist who will help me in understanding my real problem and the solution to come out of it.
There is help out there, you just have to reach out. If you want to reach out to a Therapist, EmptyCare has a repository of qualified and well-trained mental health professionals who are just one call away.
