Are all therapists trained in the same way, and does this impact the quality of therapy you receive? In this informative video, Evan, our knowledgeable mental health and addiction therapist, breaks down the different types of therapist training and their implications. He explains the various educational paths, specializations, and methodologies that therapists may adopt, highlighting how these differences can influence their approach to treatment. This video is crucial for anyone looking to understand the diverse landscape of therapy and how to choose a therapist whose training aligns with their specific needs and goals.
As an addiction and mental health therapist, I find a lot of people are confused when trying to decide which therapist is right for them. In this video, I break down the five main types of therapists and what the differences are between them.
As an addiction and mental health therapist, I find a lot of people are confused when trying to decide which therapist is right for them. They have all these different degrees or weird letters after their name and we don't know what they mean. So in this video, I'm going to break down the five main types of therapists and what the differences are between them so you can make the best choice for you. First, let's start with addiction therapists. And most often they have at least a bachelor's degree, but they often have a master's as well, so, such as myself, and they are specifically trained to deal with the complexities of addiction.
So if you have someone or you're struggling with addiction, finding someone with that license is particularly important. Next, we have clinical social workers who not just work with individuals, but often have a broader base in community organizing, activism, medical social work. But from a therapy standpoint, they're often looking at greater system impacts like society, culture, family systems, and how that impacts individuals. Next, you have clinical counselors, and I think they take the most general approach where they look at everything from biology, psychology to environmental factors as well.
And the last of the master's clinicians. You have licensed marriage and family therapists, and as their name suggests, they specialize in family systems and relationships. And these are the folks you're probably most going to want to go to if you want to do couples therapy or marriage therapy, even though other therapists can do that as well. Next, at a doctorate level, you have licensed psychologists, and these individuals can do pretty much anything a master's level therapist could do. However, they're also able to do more in depth psychological testing, like personality metrics or neurodevelopmental like ADHD or autism.
Also, these are the individuals who do the bulk of psychological research. Now, even though there's a difference between the lens of each of these disciplines, they're all able to do psychotherapy and practice a variety of the evidence based interventions that we know tend to work. Also, one of the most important things in choosing a therapist outside of their discipline is rapport, which is the relationship that you have with the therapist, that you could trust them, that you know they have your best interests in mind, and that you really see improvements when you're working with them.
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