There are several options to choose from when looking for help.
Why choose a psychologist?
The first thing to be aware of is that not all mental health practitioners are regulated.
Some people call themselves counsellor or therapist, without any oversight from a professional regulatory agency. These practitioners might offer perfectly good services, but the lack of requirements about credentials, training, ethics, or methods or scope of practice, open you as a consumer up to all sorts of risks. Just as your brother-in-law might be perfectly capable of stitching up an open wound, most of us would prefer to have that kind of thing done at the emergency room of a hospital. Professions exist to protect you by ensuring that certain regulations and standards of practice are in place.
Among the regulated health professions, there are several kinds of practitioners to choose from. Psychologists, social workers, psychotherapists, psychiatrists are the major four who work in mental health treatment under the supervision of a "college" which Ontario is a regulatory body that oversees their work. All of them make an important contribution to the health care system.
What's unique about psychologists is the depth and scope of our training.
Sometimes I explain it this way to people. Imagine you were having a baby. Lots of people safely deliver their newborn without any kind of professional assistance at all - in fact most people throughout the world are helped just by experienced members of their family or community. Some of us find it helpful to have some assistance from a person with training and plenty of experience. So a midwife or a doula are good options, and often they are credentialed and regulated so that you can trust their advice. But sometimes things get complicated and require assistance from a person with higher levels of training and expertise. It can be exceptionally helpful to have medical facilities and an obstetrician to help you with a birth; sometimes it even saves a life.
So not everyone needs a psychologist for every problem. But like the obstetrician in the case of having a baby, it can be really important to have the right kind of professional: the one with advanced training and skills who can diagnose the problems and use their experience to select the right forms of intervention. In mental health, psychiatrists and psychologists best fit this description. In Ontario, many psychiatrists have focused their practices on using medication as their primary form of helping, and this plays an important role in the system. Alternatively, Psychologists have focused their intervention on the use of various forms of psychotherapy. In general, this means that problems and challenges are addressed by listening, talking, processing, and developing new strategies and coping techniques.
Some people call themselves counsellor or therapist, without any oversight from a professional regulatory agency. These practitioners might offer perfectly good services, but the lack of requirements about credentials, training, ethics, or methods or scope of practice, open you as a consumer up to all sorts of risks. Just as your brother-in-law might be perfectly capable of stitching up an open wound, most of us would prefer to have that kind of thing done at the emergency room of a hospital. Professions exist to protect you by ensuring that certain regulations and standards of practice are in place.
Among the regulated health professions, there are several kinds of practitioners to choose from. Psychologists, social workers, psychotherapists, psychiatrists are the major four who work in mental health treatment under the supervision of a "college" which Ontario is a regulatory body that oversees their work. All of them make an important contribution to the health care system.
What's unique about psychologists is the depth and scope of our training.
Sometimes I explain it this way to people. Imagine you were having a baby. Lots of people safely deliver their newborn without any kind of professional assistance at all - in fact most people throughout the world are helped just by experienced members of their family or community. Some of us find it helpful to have some assistance from a person with training and plenty of experience. So a midwife or a doula are good options, and often they are credentialed and regulated so that you can trust their advice. But sometimes things get complicated and require assistance from a person with higher levels of training and expertise. It can be exceptionally helpful to have medical facilities and an obstetrician to help you with a birth; sometimes it even saves a life.
So not everyone needs a psychologist for every problem. But like the obstetrician in the case of having a baby, it can be really important to have the right kind of professional: the one with advanced training and skills who can diagnose the problems and use their experience to select the right forms of intervention. In mental health, psychiatrists and psychologists best fit this description. In Ontario, many psychiatrists have focused their practices on using medication as their primary form of helping, and this plays an important role in the system. Alternatively, Psychologists have focused their intervention on the use of various forms of psychotherapy. In general, this means that problems and challenges are addressed by listening, talking, processing, and developing new strategies and coping techniques.
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