What’s the difference between Psychologist, Psychiatrist and Counsellor when dealing with the mental related issue?

When dealing with a mental health issue, there usually are many parties involved. Very often people are not clear about the roles among these folks: Psychologist, Psychiatrist and/ Counsellor. I intend to use this blog post to share what I understand after having been through the process when getting out from my depression. Read on!

When we are facing a long-standing bothering issue, very natural the first thought comes to our mind is we need some counselling, or counselling may help. Well, I have to admit that most professionally trained counsellors are good in developing a therapeutic relationship. Counsellor, like any coach, can provide a certain direction or useful pointers, to help and hopefully, the counsellee can achieve his/ her wellness goal in the shortest path and time. Ultimately, it is still up to the counsellee to come out from the rut. In some cases, the Counsellor may refer the case to another professional if it deems to be beneficial or is outside of the counselling boundary eg medical reason.

What’s the difference between a Psychologist and a Psychiatrist?

A Psychologist is not a doctor, thus does not or can not prescribe any psychotic medication. The common approach they use is CBT Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, by addressing the issue from a Cognitive (Thinking) and Behaviour (Action) perspective. Like pointing out what are the correct /incorrect thinking styles, and how doing certain positive behaviours (like exercising) will help to lift up the overall mood. The mind-body embodiment is clearly there. Psychologist, however, does not dwell deep into the subconscious mind. Guided imagery or visualisation (though akin to hypnosis) is still performed at the conscious mind level. The effect is there but may not be lasting. And it will take more sessions hopefully to open up the mind and hit the jackpot when trying to get to the root of the issue, as when the conscious mind is still active, the truth is seldom out or can be masked.

A Psychiatrist, on the other hand, is a medical doctor specialising in how our brain neurons work. They will prescribe medication (eg Anti Depressant for Depression/ Anxiety and Sleeping pill for Insomnia case). Their approach is purely physiological. It is like treating symptoms with certain medication. When you cough, you get cough syrup. When you are having fever, you take Panadol (you get the drill).

Is taking medication really that bad?

Take Anti Depressant as an example. It is a quick fix used by Psychiatrist, hoping to tide the patient over Depression symptoms (like low mood, hopelessness, strong negative emotion easily triggered or persisted over a prolonged period, negative viewpoints, or even occasion suicidal thought) from a pure physical angle (by artificially boosting Serotonin, a brain chemical) but never go into the root cause why the brain is not producing enough chemical in the first place. Psychiatrist – like any other doctor, time is precious and just can’t afford to sit through the long session for each patient – so the quickest way is thru medication. Besides, it is recurring income to them (and the pharmaceutical industry). Not all depression diagnosed patient is born depression. It is acquired and there must be a reason behind it. The root cause is mostly psychological, thus the Psychiatrist will also refer the patient to see Psychologist find it out (hopefully) eventually, by taking it as a two-prong approach.

While buying time to get to the root cause is good, there are many patients never get to see any Psychologist, or have just been relying on medication as the only aid – hoping the body will recover and resume its natural bodily function one day. The longer the patient is on medication, the side effects will start to manifest in different ways: over-reliance and become anxious if not taking it (a vicious cycle that just makes thing worse), need an increase of dosage, need to change new medicine when the old one is no longer effective. The medication while chopping off the low troughs, also cutting out the high highs – thus regulate and operate in a narrower than usual range. This may result in different kinds of numbness, be it mentally (slower or even non-thinking) or physically (slower or even non-response). The medication has taken over and becomes in-charge, where it shouldn’t and doesn’t have any footing in the first place.

How does Hypnosis differ?

All healing is self-healing. Likewise, all hypnosis is self-hypnosis. A Hypnotherapist is just a skilled facilitator, who helps the client (not patient) to get into a hypnotic trance state easily and deeply, so as to allow the therapeutic work to commence i.e. to communicate to the subconscious mind directly – no more denying or animosity. The sole purpose is to find out where the trouble making wrong thinking come from. Once the Initial Sensitizing Event ISE had been neutralised (more importantly, the misperception in thinking is corrected), the associative negative emotion and bodily feeling will start to dissipate from our physical body automatically. It is a natural holistic therapeutic approach that addresses at the Mind-Body (& Spirit) that starts at the right level. Since the problem is initiated by oneself, the only person who can untie the heart knot is again ourself. It is through the hypnosis sessions that many pearls of wisdom will be unveiled when we tap into our inner resources. The impact on one’s perspective on life is profound.

I hope this short post has been helpful. Please do share with your friends or others if it may help them in any way. Thank you!