How does therapy actually work, how do you find a good one, and what’s the difference between counseling/therapy/psychiatrists/psychologists/etc.?
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A lot of misinformation in this thread. Clinical psychologist here. Sometimes these terms depend on state and date of license issuance, but generally:
A therapist is someone who does therapy, this can be done by individuals with masters or doctorates. It is a catch all term.
Psychologist is a legal term for someone with a doctoral degree in psychology. This could be in a research field (ex cognitive psychologist) or a clinical field (ex clinical psychologist, neuropsychologist).
Psychiatrist is an individual who went to medical school and then chose to specialize in psychiatry, a blend of medicine and therapeutic skills. Some psychiatrist do therapy, some do more therapy (edit: provide medication), many do both.
A general difference between psychologists and psychiatrists is that psychiatrists can prescribe medication and deliver psychotherapy. Clinical psychologists can do psychological testing (IQ, personality, etc) and deliver psychotherapy.
Counseling and therapy are essentially synonymous, though sometimes counseling is used to refer to therapy for individuals without a severe mental health diagnosis.
One way to find a psychologist is to call your insurance and ask them to recommend providers in network to you. You can also use a resource like Psychologytoday.com to search in your area. You can also just google the above terms in google maps.
Very briefly, therapy/counseling works by using psychological principles like insight, behavior, and relationships in order to help a person change both their intrapsychic and interpsychic behavior.
There are exceptions to the above, and obviously a lot more detail. Please feel free to ask more.
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