This page explains the significant differences between roles in psychology, psychiatry and psychotherapy.
Staff working in these roles tend to deal with different types of problems, although there is also considerable overlap in their work.
Below is a brief description of each of the different areas.
- What is psychology?
- What is psychiatry?
- What is psychotherapy?
What is psychology?
Psychology is the study of people: how they think, how they act, react and interact. It's concerned with all aspects of behaviour and the thoughts, feelings and motivation underlying such behaviour.
Psychology is a discipline that is firstly concerned with the normal functioning of the mind and has explored areas such as learning, remembering and the normal psychological development of children. It has been one of the fastest growing university subjects and is increasingly available in schools and colleges.
Psychologists are not usually medically qualified and only a small proportion of people studying psychology degrees will go on to work with patients.
Psychologists can specialise in a number of areas, such as mental health and educational and occupational psychology. In healthcare, psychologists specialise in clinical, counselling, forensic or health psychology.
Psychological therapy roles
- Find out more about the work of clinical psychologists
- Find out more about the work of counselling psychologists
- Find out more about the work of forensic psychologists
- Find out more about the work of health psychologists
There are also roles using psychology for other staff, including assistant psychologists, psychological wellbeing practitioners and high intensity therapists
What is psychiatry?
Psychiatry is the study of mental health problems and their diagnosis, management and prevention. Psychiatrists are medical doctors who have qualified in psychiatry. They often combine a broad general caseload alongside an area of special expertise and research.
- Find out more about the work of psychiatrists
What is psychotherapy?
Psychotherapy is conducted with individuals, groups, couples and families. Psychotherapists help people to overcome stress, emotional and relationship problems or troublesome habits.
There are many different approaches in psychotherapy, or talking therapies, which include:
- cognitive behavioural therapies
- psychoanalytic therapies
- psychodynamic therapies
- systemic and family psychotherapy
- arts and play therapies
- humanistic and integrative psychotherapies
- hypno-psychotherapy
- experiential constructivist therapies
A psychotherapist may be a psychiatrist, psychologist or other mental health professional, who has had further specialist training in psychotherapy. Increasingly, there are a number of psychotherapists who do not have backgrounds in the above fields, but who have undertaken in-depth training in this area.
Medical psychotherapists are fully-qualified doctors who have qualified in psychiatry and then undertaken a three or four-year specialist training in psychotherapy. Their role is in the psychotherapeutic treatment of patients with psychiatric illnesses.
- Find out more about the role of psychotherapists
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Therapists & Psychologists
There is very little difference between a psychologist and therapist in terms of how they perform clinical work. They both are mental health clinicians. Psychologists spend longer in school and often go on to do assessment, research, or teach. Therapists can also do this. As of 2022, Psychologists have come to an agreement that allows them to do online therapy with many states. For many other therapists their ability to do online therapy is limited by state lines at the current moment but boards are indicating this will likely change in the next couple of years.
For the most part, no. Only a psychiatrist, psychiatric nurse, or general medical doctor can prescribe. In states outside of Texas therapists and psychologists can go through specific training to prescribe certain medications associated with mental health. This is now allowed in Texas as of 2022.
Yes, a therapist can diagnose you.
OCCUPATIONS & QUALIFICATIONS
Occupations & Qualifications
Licensed Professional Counselor’s go to school and their education focuses exclusively on how to be a therapist in private practice. Programs vary in terms of their focus but CACREP, a board overseeing a number of counseling programs certification programs, mandates a certain amount of hours, class focus, experience, and audits the programs for quality. Typically it takes counselors 2-3 years to get through their masters level classes and another 2-4 years to finish their clinical hours under strict supervision (can be as quick as 1.5 years in Texas) to get fully licensed. Counselors have a wide range of specializations, can become teachers with a PhD, and can also perform testing and research like psychologists. That said, most often they work in private practice and sometimes they are in hospitals, agencies, and schools.
Psychologists go to school for 5-6 years, graduate with a PhD, have one year of post doctoral work they must complete, and have clinical rotations while in their schooling. Regulation varies by state but typically after a year under a supervisor, they are fully licensed. Psychologists can work in roles similar to counselors in schools, doing testing, teaching, research, or doing therapy. In psychology programs, they require students to pick a track that is either clinical (client focused) or research focused. Many psychologists focus on research instead of having a clinical focus. One difference (as of 2022) is that psychologists have agreements in place between many US states to allow online counseling across state lines. Most other mental health professions are evaluating similar agreements.
Social work programs tend to be 2 years in length and allow students to focus on agency work and case management, administration, policy work, and clinical work. They spend several years underneath the supervision before they become fully licensed. Social workers are commonly found in agencies, schools, hospitals, and after they have clinical experience they often migrate to private practice. Social workers, like psychologists, can practice around the globe.
These are the people who provide medications and go to medical school. The overall time investment is easily 7+ years or more to be fully licensed. They may also do therapy in their practice. Psychiatrists tend to be in the most demand due to their ability to prescribe and the fact they are so few in number. In Austin, we have fewer than 300 for a population of almost 2 million. Psychiatrists tend to run their practice in several different models: some do therapy and medication and some focus solely on prescribing. Also, their approach will vary – some might be very holistic (mind and body – diet, exercise, etc) in their approach and others may only be focused on finding the right medication.
MFT’s have similar schooling to LPC’s but they focus on marriage and family therapy. Their programs are a similar length to LPC programs but they have a focus on their specialization. MFT’s tend to take 2-3 years after completing school to become fully licensed.