Psychologist or Psychotherapist?

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Permalink Reply by Kathleen Hanover on July 15, 2010 at 6:40am

It might help if you shared more details. Various professional labels mean different things in different jurisdictions, and may have different areas of expertise/responsibility/education/licensure. Here, psychiatrists are the medical doctors, whereas psychologists and psychotherapists are not (necessarily). The psychiatrists dispense the drugs, and the others dispense the talk therapy (to make a sweeping generalization).

As an FYI, "double depression" is a complication of dysthymia, a kind of low-grade, chronic depression. Sometimes people who are chronically depressed also develop a major depression on top of it. It can be a very dangerous, life-threatening condition. Here's the WebMD definition of double depression.

Kathleen

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Permalink Reply by Graham Old on July 15, 2010 at 10:32am

A psychologist has a qualification in psychology, whereas a psychotherapst is trained in the delivery of practical therapy.

The two overlap a lot, but a psychologist would normally be more academically qualified. I'm actually surprised that your friend was referred to a psychotherapist, but if their psychiatrist knows the therapist in person there may be a perfectly adequate reason.


Graham Old
www.forwardtherapy.co.uk

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Permalink Reply by tc_Burt on July 16, 2010 at 6:39am

Many thanks for this information Graham

Graham Old said:

A psychologist has a qualification in psychology, whereas a psychotherapst is trained in the delivery of practical therapy.

The two overlap a lot, but a psychologist would normally be more academically qualified. I'm actually surprised that your friend was referred to a psychotherapist, but if their psychiatrist knows the therapist in person there may be a perfectly adequate reason.


Graham Old
www.forwardtherapy.co.uk

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Permalink Reply by Alonzo Cavazos, Ed.D., LCSW, LPC on July 17, 2011 at 1:13pm

Kathleen:

thanks for the post!

Alonzo

Kathleen Hanover said:

It might help if you shared more details. Various professional labels mean different things in different jurisdictions, and may have different areas of expertise/responsibility/education/licensure. Here, psychiatrists are the medical doctors, whereas psychologists and psychotherapists are not (necessarily). The psychiatrists dispense the drugs, and the others dispense the talk therapy (to make a sweeping generalization).

As an FYI, "double depression" is a complication of dysthymia, a kind of low-grade, . Sometimes people who are chronically depressed also develop a on top of it. It can be a very dangerous, life-threatening condition. Here's the WebMD definition of double depression.

Kathleen

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Permalink Reply by Richard Nongard - NLPBoard.com on July 17, 2011 at 2:07pm

Psychotherapist is a generic word, that generally implies that a professional will not only provide what they are academically trained to do, but also to provide counseling.

The groups that fall into the catagory include:

Some Psychiatrists

Some Psychologists

Some Marriage and Family Therapists

Some Professional Counselors

Some Social Workers

Some Chemical Dependency Counselors.

 

In most, but not all, locals "Psychotherapist" implies state licensing as one of the above listed groups.

 

I am not suprised when a psychiatrist (they usually do no therapy) refer people to social workers, LMFT's, LPC's. etc.    After all, many of these people are working with the psychiatrist, and often employed by them in the same group practice

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Permalink Reply by Alonzo Cavazos, Ed.D., LCSW, LPC on July 17, 2011 at 7:30pm

Richard:

I recently started getting referrals from a psychiatrist.  I don't have any affiliation with him; he simply needs psychotherapists to refer to as he only does only sees clients for counseling in group.  It seems that there isn't a financial incentive to see patients for psychotherapy on an individual basis. 

Alonzo

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