Katheryn Kiker

I had someone reach out to me last week, just calling to figure out what kind of mental health professional they needed, and it inspired me to make this flowchart. I agree it is confusing to know the difference between a counselor, psychologist and psychiatrist. While this flowchart is very simplistic for ease, there is overlap in the roles.

The difference between mental health professionals

For example, psychiatrist and psychologists can use talk therapy similar to counselors, but also provide additional services, like giving detailed assessments and prescribing medication. Kind of like how a square is a rectangle but a rectangle isn’t always a square.

I also think of psychiatrists and clinical psychologists as being more focused on biological methods of healing, whereas counselors tend to explore nurture, environment, and emotions. We all know a little bit about the other and all are needed — talking about our life experiences may not help too much with a genetic or neurobiological problem, UNLESS the issues surrounding that problem are causing emotional distress. Similarly, taking medication probably may not help with emotional problems like grief, or unhealthy patterns of behavior like people pleasing, etc- UNLESS they get to a certain level of need that I describe in the chart here as FUNCTIONING. I think accepting help in the form of medication can be brave in these instances because if we cannot function it’s going to feel like an uphill battle, and no matter how much you talk about it, it might only keep you on a plateau.

It’s probably too big of a task to go into detail to describe each mental health professional and their capacities, and because people are complex- it may be a combination of both nature and nurture going on and ultimately a working combination of both may be best at certain points. But the flow chart is how I more generally think about what level of need my clients are looking for. Hope it helps. 🤗