How does therapy actually work, how do you find a good one, and what’s the difference between counseling/therapy/psychiatrists/psychologists/etc.?

Question

How does therapy actually work, how do you find a good one, and what’s the difference between counseling/therapy/psychiatrists/psychologists/etc.?

In: Other

Answer 1

Psychiatrist: a medical doctor (or nurse practitioner)–someone who can prescribes medication.

Psychologist: has a doctoral degree in psychology, provides talk therapy.

Therapist: provides talk therapy. Depending on your location, this term is not strictly legally regulated. In my experience, but almost all have some kind of license like “licensed clinical social worker (LCSW),” “licensed professional counselor (LPC),” etc. Those qualifications do have specific legal requirements, probably including a master’s degree and supervised work experience. I’d be reluctant to see a therapist who wasn’t certified or licensed in some way, partly because the certification implies that they have experience and partly because it requires them to follow a variety of ethical rules.

In my experience, people who are using medication don’t just see a psychiatrist–they’ll see a therapist or psychologist regularly for talk therapy, and see a psychiatrist less frequently when they need to adjust their meds or get new prescriptions.

Suggestions for finding a good one:
– Read up on some common treatment approaches (cognitive behavioral therapy, psychodynamic therapy, etc). If one sounds like a good fit for you, you can look for therapists who use that approach.
– Use listings on psychologytoday.com, your health insurance website, or similar sites to find local therapists (i like psychology today because it has more filtering options you can use to narrow down the options). Read the profile info to see if they specialize in the type of issue you’re trying to address or treatment approach you’re interested in.
– It can take a while to find a therapist who is a good fit for you. Don’t be afraid to try several. In my experience, maybe 30% of the therapists I’ve seen were (IMO) bad people (ethical issues, judgemental/not respectful, etc). Another 40% seem like they’re probably good therapists for other people, but their methods and personalities didn’t really click for me. The remaining ones were a good fit, and they were really helpful.