Counselling versus Psychology
I am a masters-qualified counsellor. A counsellor is not a clinical professional, for example they are different to a psychologist or a psychiatrist. This means that counsellors do not provide clinical services, such as:
-formal assessments
-diagnoses of clinical disorders
-clinical therapeutic treatments (e.g. CBT)
-ongoing monitoring and management for disorders or associated risks
-reports or letters for authoritative use in employment, medical, or legal contexts
To repeat, as a counsellor I do not provide any of those services. If you need any clinical services you should seek a psychologist or psychiatrist instead of me.
By contrast, counselling, as I am trained in it, helps people increase their:
-insight
-wisdom
-motivation
-practical solutions
-life skills
-personal strengths and talents
-character and the virtues
-a sense of purpose and direction
-a sense of value and meaning
There are challenges for which a counsellor is clearly more suitable, for example life direction, and challenges for which a psychologist or psychiatrist is typically the proper choice, for example Bi-Polar Disorder. There are also challenges which both counsellors and clinical professionals help with, such as depression and anxiety, for some people see these in more clinical ways, and some in more existential ways.
With respect to distinctly clinical disorders, a counsellor may still provide important help, but in different ways to clinical support. Partly this is because there is more to a person--and often more to their complicated struggle--than the clinical dimensions. Partly it is because counselling and clinical professions each express radically different paradigms, very different ways of conceiving of and approaching reality. The clinical approach frames the client as an object of an applied science (medical or behavioural) to be acted upon through the technologies of assessment, treatment, and management. The typical counselling paradigm (humanistic, existential, person-centred, etc.) is anti-reductive. As a counsellor I focus on the client as an irreducible centre of intelligence, free will, intuition, and so on, and I help them to better apply those faculties. In doing so, I am helping my client to cultivate the goods described above: insight, motivation, and so on. We pursue those goods for their own sake, and also for the sake of further, more specific goals such as emotional or relational concerns. I am not assessing and doing something to my client--the expert treating the passive patient--rather, my client is an adult who has approached me to share in reflective conversation about their concerns, in ways which may enlighten and strengthen them as they seek to put their best foot forward.
A helpful analogy here is that of a personal trainer versus a medical doctor. Personal training may be far more effective when it comes to health, disease, well-being, and strength, and yet you do not see a personal trainer for medical services. Rather, you go to a doctor, and sometimes it is necessary that you do so. It is the doctor who provides assessments and diagnoses, clinical treatments (medication, surgery, etc.), monitoring and management, and authoritative reports and letters. Likewise, my counselling may be beneficial in many ways beyond that which any clinical professional such as a psychologists or psychiatrist may offer, however I do not provide the clinical services they offer. For some people those clinical services are necessary.
I am a masters-qualified counsellor. A counsellor is not a clinical professional, for example they are different to a psychologist or a psychiatrist. This means that counsellors do not provide clinical services, such as:
-formal assessments
-diagnoses of clinical disorders
-clinical therapeutic treatments (e.g. CBT)
-ongoing monitoring and management for disorders or associated risks
-reports or letters for authoritative use in employment, medical, or legal contexts
To repeat, as a counsellor I do not provide any of those services. If you need any clinical services you should seek a psychologist or psychiatrist instead of me.
By contrast, counselling, as I am trained in it, helps people increase their:
-insight
-wisdom
-motivation
-practical solutions
-life skills
-personal strengths and talents
-character and the virtues
-a sense of purpose and direction
-a sense of value and meaning
There are challenges for which a counsellor is clearly more suitable, for example life direction, and challenges for which a psychologist or psychiatrist is typically the proper choice, for example Bi-Polar Disorder. There are also challenges which both counsellors and clinical professionals help with, such as depression and anxiety, for some people see these in more clinical ways, and some in more existential ways.
With respect to distinctly clinical disorders, a counsellor may still provide important help, but in different ways to clinical support. Partly this is because there is more to a person--and often more to their complicated struggle--than the clinical dimensions. Partly it is because counselling and clinical professions each express radically different paradigms, very different ways of conceiving of and approaching reality. The clinical approach frames the client as an object of an applied science (medical or behavioural) to be acted upon through the technologies of assessment, treatment, and management. The typical counselling paradigm (humanistic, existential, person-centred, etc.) is anti-reductive. As a counsellor I focus on the client as an irreducible centre of intelligence, free will, intuition, and so on, and I help them to better apply those faculties. In doing so, I am helping my client to cultivate the goods described above: insight, motivation, and so on. We pursue those goods for their own sake, and also for the sake of further, more specific goals such as emotional or relational concerns. I am not assessing and doing something to my client--the expert treating the passive patient--rather, my client is an adult who has approached me to share in reflective conversation about their concerns, in ways which may enlighten and strengthen them as they seek to put their best foot forward.
A helpful analogy here is that of a personal trainer versus a medical doctor. Personal training may be far more effective when it comes to health, disease, well-being, and strength, and yet you do not see a personal trainer for medical services. Rather, you go to a doctor, and sometimes it is necessary that you do so. It is the doctor who provides assessments and diagnoses, clinical treatments (medication, surgery, etc.), monitoring and management, and authoritative reports and letters. Likewise, my counselling may be beneficial in many ways beyond that which any clinical professional such as a psychologists or psychiatrist may offer, however I do not provide the clinical services they offer. For some people those clinical services are necessary.