Mental health is a complicated and deeply personal issue, but one that many people have a limited understanding of.
The nuances and specifics of different mental health afflictions are now understood a great deal better than they have been in the fairly recent past. As a result, there are now an ever-increasing number of mental health specialists available to ensure that someone struggling with their mental health receives the right kind and level of support they need.
The methods and intensity of this support, as well as the care provided, vary considerably depending on who administers them.
This article aims to provide you with a basic overview of some of the most common types of mental health professionals, so that you can better understand the range of options available if you or someone you know is struggling with their mental health.
Psychologists
While they will often hold a doctoral degree (for example, a PhD.), psychologists are not medical doctors in the technical sense. Rather, they are scientists of human behaviour, trained and licensed to carry out evaluations and various forms of therapy.
Perhaps the most stereotypical form of mental health treatment – with a patient lying on a couch, talking to a smartly-dressed person who is concernedly taking notes – would be conducted by a psychologist. This form of therapy, which doesn’t involve medication, is known as psychotherapy and is a good first step in working out where your mental health issues, if any, might lie.
Counselors
A counselor is someone you might go to if you need help in Comprehensive Mental Health Counseling or addressing a specific concern in your life from a more practical than medical point of view (although mentality, attitudes, and psychological framing will still play a significant role in their approach, which is why they are still considered mental health professionals).
There are a huge variety of counseling specialists available, with particular individuals generally focusing on one area, whether that’s family counseling, marriage counseling, counseling to help someone break an addiction, and so on – these professionals are well versed in what works and what doesn’t, mentally speaking, when trying to overcome problems affecting our everyday life and relationships.
Psychiatric nurse practitioners
It’s a multifaceted title – and indeed a multifaceted job – so you might very well be forgiven for asking yourself, ‘What does a psychiatric nurse practitioner do?’ While the psychiatric element means that they fulfil a similar role to psychiatrists, who are mental health doctors with the ability to clinically treat and prescribe medication, they have often taken a different qualification path to get there. They thus typically treat specific mental conditions in a medical (i.e., hospital or surgery setting), but might also work in schools or council programs on a rolling basis.
Generally, psychiatric nurse practitioners will have graduate education and vocational-specific qualifications as well. In America, they require board certification every five years, so you can rest assured that a psychiatric nurse practitioner is a fully qualified alternative to a clinical psychiatrist.
Clinical social workers
Clinical social workers, as a general rule, fill a hybrid role somewhere between a counselor, a social worker, and a clinical psychologist. Although, as usual with something as tricky as mental health treatment, there are many specialities within the field. These will fall into similar niches to counseling: addiction therapy as family relations work, as well as case work similar to a more traditional social worker model.
All of these professionals, though, will have a minimum standard of higher education – a master’s degree in social work (MSW), as well as various career-specific qualifications to ensure that their fairly hands-on practice is directed in the right direction. A clinical social worker would be worth seeing for someone handling chronic, lifestyle-related mental health issues, often in coordination with other mental health and social services. These professionals are also often the most suited to dealing with the fallout and trauma of domestic violence and abuse.
Art therapists
Art therapy is a discipline whereby the expressive power of creativity is harnessed within a psychotherapeutic relationship to encourage healing, self-esteem, self-expression, the development of cognitive skills, social skills, and relationship-negotiation (for example, in a family setting), and conflict resolution. Art therapists are, like the rest of these professionals, highly qualified, requiring a master’s degree or higher and an in-depth understanding of psychological theory in order to become licensed to practice.
Because of the versatility of their treatment style, and the flexibility inherent in their practice, art therapists can practice almost anywhere, from helping pediatric psychiatrists working with children in hospitals to schools to government buildings and workplaces, art therapy offers enriching psychological assistance in a setting often more informal than traditional psychotherapeutic practise, which patients often find conducive to more progress when healing.
~
There is no right or wrong when it comes to mental health treatment, although for different people and different conditions, some treatments (and therefore professionals) will feel much better-suited than others. We hope this article has given a helpful overview, although it is worth noting that there is considerable nuance to these careers and practices not touched on here, so remember to get informed individually as well.
