Mental Health Professionals

Psychotherapist

This general term includes any expert with the skills to help people deal with their emotions. A psychotherapist may be a medical doctor, a psychologist, a social worker, or another type of mental health professional.

Psychotherapists help people identify and change troubling emotions, thoughts, and behaviors. They can work with individuals, couples, or groups.

Clinical Psychologist

A clinical psychologist is a member of the medical field who has gone through a lot of training to become an expert in spotting and fixing emotional, mental, and behavioral problems.

Instead of giving medication, a clinical psychologist will work with a person to find the cause of their problem and help them think of possible solutions. Depending on the environment in which they work, they might provide an in-depth evaluation and a range of treatment options.

They might collaborate with other mental health specialists like psychiatrists, social workers, or psychotherapists or work independently.

Counselor

Counselors are trained to listen completely and nonjudgmentally in order to help someone understand a problem and find solutions to help them change.

Depending on their training, they can help someone in a variety of ways, and they usually offer a relatively short-term approach to therapy. Counseling can help you make sense of difficult life events, adjust better to change, and learn tools to become more resilient.

Psychiatric Nurse

Psychiatric nurses are very important to the mental health of their patients, whether they work in a hospital or in the community. psychologists, Professionals in this field often work side-by-side with psychiatrists, psychologists, and other mental health professionals.

Psychiatric nurses are trained to assess patients, make diagnoses, and help patients manage their medication and mental health. They may also provide talk therapy, either in a group setting or with an individual client.

Psychiatrist

Psychiatrists are medical doctors who have completed additional training in the diagnosis and treatment of mental health disorders. A psychiatrist’s medical training allows them to prescribe medications used to treat depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, ADHD, and other mental health disorders.

Depending on their background and education, a psychiatrist may or may not be able to provide therapy, but they will likely suggest that you see a counselor, psychotherapist, or psychologist.

Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW)

A Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) is trained to help people with emotional, social, family, and physical problems through counseling, assessment, intervention, and case management.

What makes social work so unique is that LCSWs don’t just consider their clients’ mental and emotional health but also the social and environmental contexts in which they live. Through these efforts, they are able to help people find resources that can improve their quality of life.

A Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) may work in hospitals, schools, and private practice.



School Counselor

A school counselor is a student advocate. They collaborate with teachers and parents/guardians to help students develop socially and emotionally, as well as to remove any learning barriers they may have, such as school adjustment issues, stress/anxiety, self-esteem, family changes, grief, fears, or relationship difficulties.

While school counselors are extremely important, it’s important to know they are not mental health professionals.