A psychotherapist is a person who is trained in psychological methods to help people with mental health problems. Psychotherapists are commonly called therapists.
These therapists have vast knowledge and expertise in their field.
A therapist can be a psychologist, psychiatrist, marriage counselor, life coach, and social worker. They all have degrees in a variety of disciplines, for example, they have master’s degrees in either clinical psychology, counseling psychology, social work or psychiatry. Some either have Psy-D or Ph.D.
Therapists are trained and licensed for a number of treatments for people. Therapists are aimed to help people make decisions and understand their feelings in order to solve problems.
When to see a therapist?
We often feel stressed in our lives. Some people overcome this stress on their own. But some people cannot handle this and feel prone to psychological problems. Depression, anxiety, trauma, addiction, and relationship problems are common psychological problems among people.
Sometimes these problems are tolerable but some people
Feel overwhelmed under certain life situations.
This is the reason people need to go to therapists to get help for overcoming these problems.
Here one thing must be kept in mind that it is not necessary that one should go to the therapist only when things become out of his/her control. Regardless of the severity of the problem, everyone can benefit from the therapists either their problem is bigger or smaller.
These therapists provide support and guidance to their clients so that they may make effective decisions in their lives.
Different types of therapists:
In order to understand the work of the therapists, we have divided them into a few categories to help people decide which therapist is most suitable for them.
Mental health counseling or clinical professional counselor:
They work in offices, hospitals, clinics, courts and directly in the client’s home. They help people with mental health issues in the above-mentioned categories.
These therapists are trained to perform assessments including the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for children (WISC). This test is designed to understand what intellectual disabilities the children are experiencing.
Marriage or family therapists:
They have their expertise for couple and family counseling. They conduct therapy sessions with all family members individually as well as in group form. This helps to overcome any issue a family member is experiencing in his/her life and how other family members may be helpful in this regard. The therapy sessions in these categories are usually shorter than other such as a maximum of 12 sessions.
Clinical social workers:
Like all other therapists, clinical social workers help people to overcome mental issues. They guide people on how they can improve their mental health and relationships. Since they fall under the social work category so they mostly work with people in disadvantaged populations.
Doctor of psychology; (Psy-D):
They have obtained a Psy-D degree and have spent years of supervised clinical training. They also have given an examination of the professional practice of psychology.
As compared to other therapists, these have more experience and knowledge. That’s the reason they charge more than others. They work in a broad spectrum of fields such as Business psychology, forensic psychology, and organizational psychology.
These therapists can also deal with and treat severe mental health issues such as borderline personality disorder. Their vast education allows them to handle such cases effectively.
Some other therapists specialize in certain therapies and disorders. And they work on certain disorders only.
These were the basic types of therapists that are found in every country. All we have to do is to find the one which is more suitable to treat our problems.