Life can be difficult sometimes, especially if you're dealing with mental illness. Stress and trauma can lead to significant difficulties in day-to-day life, and sometimes, we need a little extra support. However, what should you expect from the professional you're seeing?
Mental health professionals aren't there to give you answers, they're there to help you find the path you want to tread. They're there to provide a sounding board and to help you learn how to control the trajectories your mind wanders. There are a range of mental health professionals and mental health qualifications, such as an MA in counseling psychology online, but what should you be looking for?
Today, we're going over two of the most commonly utilized mental health services, counseling and psychology, discussing their differences and what it is that might attract you to one over the other.
What is Mental Health?
Growing up, we live through certain experiences. Particularly in our youth, these experiences shape the way our brains develop and the composition of the neurological connections within the brain structure. Depending on what we live through and what we're exposed to, we can develop brains that react to certain things differently. For example, a baby that was shocked by loud noises during infancy may grow into an adult with an irrational fear of loud noises. A child that bonded with parents through sport may associate sports with feelings of love and safety.
How our brain has grown and how it reacts to certain stimuli is called “mental health.” It is the state of our brain, the process of our thoughts, and how much control we have over our reactions to stimuli.
A “healthy” brain is capable of controlling impulses and reactions and has what would be considered a regulated response to distressing situations. However, due to traumatic events and excess stress, sometimes people develop or experience “mental illness,” which is a state of the brain that causes intense and dysregulated responses to certain things.
What is a Counselor?
A counselor is an individual who provides support to someone experiencing intense distress in their life, whether this be due to mental illness or overbearing and persistent feelings or unfamiliar situations a person doesn't know how to work through on their own.
Counselors work in a variety of ways; they can be mediators, social workers, and more. Counselors are there to help their clients work towards a better life. This can mean several things depending on the client and the specific role of the counselor. It can mean helping a client set realistic goals for their future, providing a safe place to have a non-judgmental chat regarding stress during a busy period at work, or working through talk therapy or other therapeutic methods to assist a client with their mental illness.
Counselors can also make recommendations for their clients to see other medical professionals should they deem it appropriate to do so.
What is a Psychologist?
There is some overlap in the roles taken on by counselors and psychologists in that both are capable of administering therapeutic approaches to mental distress, most often talk therapy.
However, where a psychologist differs is in the level of study and the scope of expertise. Psychologists are doctors with an advanced qualification in psychology, such as a doctorate or PhD. Because of this, they receive deeper knowledge of the science of the human brain and human behavior and are qualified to treat more severe mental illnesses, including psychosis.
Psychologists are also qualified to perform psychological or therapeutic testing and are therefore qualified to diagnose mental illness, usually using the criteria of the DSM-IV (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) to do so.
Seeking Help
If you feel like you may be experiencing the symptoms of one or more mental illnesses, or if you're just struggling to get through life right now, it may be worth seeing either a counselor or a psychologist to help guide you on the path to the life you want to lead.
If you or someone you know is experiencing significant distress, please see your nearest GP and obtain a referral to a mental health professional. Help is out there, and we all deal with difficult times. It's okay to ask for help.
