Therepist or Counselor or...

[epeira8]

Hi everyone.

I'm truly considering therepy for the first time since my GAD manifested itself in full 13 years ago. I could usually handle it, or it would finally pass after a few months, but it's relentless now to the fact that my Health Anxiety made me think I was having a heart attack over the weekend (I wasn't). I know I need help, possibly medication, and I'm ok with that. I do not, however, know how to go about finding someone. I'm on psychologytoday.com and I don't know if there's a big difference between therepist and counselor or psychologist? If anyone has any insight, info, tips on how to go about this, I'd very much appreciate it.

Thanks in advance!

[MyNameIsTerry]

It can depend on the individual but traditionally counsellors were more into listening forms of therapy, therapists more action/goal related therapy and psychologists are more highly educated hence can deal with more complex forms of mental health disorder.

But you can easily find counsellors who mix & match, as can you therapists. And qualifications can vary. Psychologists are normally higher up the tree so more likely trained in a greater number of modalities but they can be a university leaver who has recently qualified so that doesn't mean they would be better than a lesser educated but more skilled & experienced counsellor or therapist.

So have a look at what they say they offer. More therapy's suggests they have more education whether it's courses or degrees. And look at their professional registrations which can give insight into how accepted they are my professional bodies.

Just be aware that if you are in a country where regulation isn't mandatory, like in the UK, some of these professional bodies can be little more than part of the very training companies they bought their education from.