Choosing the Best Mental Health Counselor

Types of Mental Health Professionals

Which mental health professional is right for you? There are many types of mental health professionals. Finding the right one for you may require some research. Below is a listing of types of mental health treatment professionals to help you understand the differences between the services they provide.

The following mental health professionals can provide psychological assessments and therapy; however, cannot generally prescribe medications (although some states will allow it):

Clinical Psychologist

Clinical psychologists are licensed professionals who are qualified to provide direct services to patients. Their work may include administering and interpreting cognitive and personality tests, diagnosing mental illness, creating treatment plans, and conducting psychotherapy. Psychologists are experts in psychometrics, or psychological measurement. Often they are called on to give a battery of tests to evaluate cognitive ability or mental status. In addition to formal tests, clinical psychologists may use interviews and behavioral observations. Key to effective practice is understanding how conditions manifest themselves across diverse populations.

School Psychologist

School psychologists are uniquely qualified members of school teams that support students' ability to learn and teachers' ability to teach. They apply expertise in mental health, learning, and behavior, to help children and youth succeed academically, socially, behaviorally, and emotionally. School psychologists partner with families, teachers, school administrators, and other professionals to create safe, healthy, and supportive learning environments that strengthen connections between home, school, and the community.

The following mental health professionals can provide counseling and with proper training, assessments; however, cannot prescribe medication:

Clinical Social Worker

Clinical social work is a specialty practice area of social work which focuses on the assessment, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of mental illness, emotional, and other behavioral disturbances. Individual, group and family therapy are common treatment modalities. Social workers who provide these services are required to be licensed or certified at the clinical level in their state of practice. Clinical social workers perform services in a variety of settings including private practice, hospitals, community mental health, primary care, and agencies.

Licensed Professional Counselor

Licensed professional counselors (LPCs) are master’s-degreed mental health service providers, trained to work with individuals, families, and groups in treating mental, behavioral, and emotional problems and disorders. LPCs make up a large percentage of the workforce employed in community mental health centers, agencies, and organizations, and are employed within and covered by managed care organizations and health plans. LPCs also work with active duty military personnel and their families, as well as veterans.

Mental Health Counselor

A counselor with a masters degree and several years of supervised clinical work experience. Mental health counseling is what people typically think of when they hear the word counseling, but counselors’ actual job duties may go well beyond what people imagine. Clinical counselors do indeed talk people through problems. In many cases, though, they diagnose as well as treat mental illness.

Certified Alcohol and Drug Abuse Counselor

The first key difference between the Licensed Alcohol Drug Abuse Counselor (LADC) and the Certified Alcohol and Drug Abuse Counselor (CADC) exams is the required formal education level required for exam eligibility. For the LADC, an advanced degree may be required, while CADC certification applicants can submit for eligibility with a High School Diploma/GED and coursework that satisfies eligibility.

The second and more important difference is national reciprocity. While the CADC has achieved national certification and international accreditation, the LADC does not have interstate recognition due to a lack of a universal definition. The result is no LADC reciprocity between interstate providers, employers, and service recipients. In contrast, a counselor with a CADC is eligible to be employed and provide services within any state, and in most cases, meets a global standard of competency.

Marital and Family Therapist

Marriage and Family Therapists (MFTs) are mental health professionals trained in psychotherapy and family systems, and licensed to diagnose and treat mental and emotional disorders within the context of marriage, couples and family systems.

Marriage and family therapists are a highly experienced group of practitioners, with an average of 13 years of clinical practice in the field of marriage and family therapy. They evaluate and treat mental and emotional disorders, other health and behavioral problems, and address a wide array of relationship issues within the context of the family system.

Peer Specialist

A Peer Specialist is a person with a mental health and/or co-occurring condition, who has been trained and certified to help others with these conditions, identify and achieve specific life and recovery goals. A Peer Specialist is a person who is actively engaged in his/her own recovery, and who volunteers or is hired to provide peer support services to others engaged in mental health treatment.

Other Therapists

Therapist with an advance degree trained in specialized forms of therapy. Examples include art therapist, music therapist.

The following mental health professionals can prescribe medication; however, they may not provide therapy:

Psychiatrist

A psychiatrist is a physician (a medical doctor--either an MD or a DO) who specializes in the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of mental, addictive, and emotional disorders. Psychiatrists are trained in the medical, psychological, and social components of mental, emotional, and behavioral disorders and utilize a broad range of treatment modalities, including diagnostic tests, prescribing medications, psychotherapy, and helping patients and their families cope with stress and crises. Psychiatrists increasingly work in integrated settings and often lead or participate on treatment teams and provide consultation to primary care physicians and other medical specialties.

Child/Adolescent Psychiatrist

The child and adolescent psychiatrist is a physician who specializes in the diagnosis and the treatment of disorders of thinking, feeling and/or behavior affecting children, adolescents, and their families. A child and adolescent psychiatrist offers families the advantages of a medical education, the medical traditions of professional ethics, and medical responsibility for providing comprehensive care.

Psychiatric or Mental Health Nurse Practitioner

Psychiatric mental health nursing is a specialty within nursing. Psychiatric mental health registered nurses work with individuals, families, groups, and communities, assessing their mental health needs. The PMH nurse develops a nursing diagnosis and plan of care, implements the nursing process, and evaluates it for effectiveness. Psychiatric Mental Health Advanced Practice Registered Nurses (PMH-APRNs) offer primary care services to the psychiatric-mental health population. PMH-APRNs assess, diagnose, and treat individuals and families with psychiatric disorders or the potential for such disorders using their full scope of therapeutic skills, including the prescription of medication and administration of psychotherapy. PMH-APRNs often own private practices and corporations as well as consult with groups, communities, legislators, and corporations.

You've Made the Call to the Mental Health Professional...Now What Do You Do?

Spend a few minutes talking with him or her on the phone, ask about their approach to working with patients, their philosophy, whether or not they have a specialty or concentration (some psychologists for instance specialize in family counseling, or child counseling, while others specialize in divorce or coping with the loss of a loved one.) If you feel comfortable talking to the counselor or doctor, the next step is to make an appointment.

On your first visit, the counselor or the doctor will want to get to know you and why you called him or her. The counselor will want to know-- what you think the problem is, about your life, what you do, where you live, with whom you live. It is also common to be asked about your family and friends. This information helps the professional to assess your situation and develop a plan for treatment. If you don’t feel comfortable with the professional after the first, or even several visits, talk about your feelings at your next meeting; don’t be afraid to contact another counselor. Feeling comfortable with the professional you choose is very important to the success of your treatment.

Collaborative Therapeutic Services (CTS) seeks to maximize clients’ options by offering a variety of services, hours, locations and service providers with diverse specializations. We offer evening & weekend appointments. Have questions? Contact Us Here or Call 813-951-7346. Locations in Tampa & Brandon.

What is Play Therapy?

Children and Play Therapy

Children require therapy as well, especially to deal with issues that are affecting their day to day lives. A form of therapy aimed specifically at children, Play Therapy hopes to encourage the child to explore those events from their lives that are currently impacting their current circumstances. The location is usually picked by the child, for this kind of therapy and they are engaged not only through play, but through language as well, Through counselling, counselors can help the child to communicate repressed thoughts, deal with unresolved issues and undergo personal growth.

Why is the concept of ‘play’ so integral to this form of therapy? Research shows that Play is essentially important for children who have experienced prior trauma. Effects a child experiences because of trauma can be found in the nonverbal locations of the brain. These include, amygdala, hippocampus, thalamus and brain stem, at the same time the location for where people deal with issues resides in the frontal lobe of the brain. Because of this, a child suffering from trauma might not be able to indicate that they have a problem. Play Therapy utilizes physical as well as role-playing activities that have proven to be widely successful in moving these memories from the nonverbal areas to the frontal lobe area of the brain.

How Can Play Therapy Help?

A child who is suffering from adverse personal issues might result in acting out in several different ways. Parents, even if they want to, cannot help or engage with the child at this point of time. This is where Play Therapy becomes important. Specially designed to communicate with children suffering from personal issues, Play Therapy helps them to resolve those problems to become emotionally strong. Although this treatment may benefit people of all ages, it is primarily designed to engage with children under the age of twelve.

The therapy room is specially designed to create an environment where a child can feel safe and secure, and be able to release their feelings in an effort to resolve them. The therapy room is also known as a playroom, and it is filled with toys. But these just are not any toys, they are toys designed to better understand how a child is feeling, as he engages with the items around him. The interaction the child has with these toys serve to provide as symbolism for what the child is feeling. In this manner, the therapist learns about aspects of the child that the child would otherwise not have been able to express by themselves. At the beginning of Play Therapy, the children are free to play as they wish, but as time goes on – the therapist might start to introduce specific items in an effort to better gauge how the child is feeling. Play Therapy can help the child to better improving by developing their social skills, teaching them how to make positive decisions, encouraging the expression of emotions, creating new patterns of thought and behavior, and through teaching the child that it is important to express how they are feeling and communicate with others.

Play Therapy for Adults

Play therapy can also be used to treat issues faced by teenagers and adults. By adulthood, most people have lost their ability to playfully explore themselves. Play therapists are trained to help adolescents, adults, and even the elderly relearn the values of play. Playful exploration has been proven to enhance both cognitive and physical behaviors, and there is a significant amount of research from the fields of neurophysiology and molecular biology that supports play therapy as a valid therapeutic technique for those past childhood. A growing number of organizations and experts are dedicated to play research and advocacy, believing that play is important for people of all ages.

Play therapy can be used to treat (in children or adults):

• Dementia
• Grief and loss
• Posttraumatic stress (PTSD)
• Obsessions and compulsions
• Attention deficit hyperactivity
• Mood issues
• Anxiety
• Depression
• Developmental issues
• Arrested emotional development

Collaborative Therapeutic Services (CTS) seeks to maximize clients’ options by offering a variety of services, hours, locations and service providers with diverse specializations. We offer evening & weekend appointments. Have questions? Contact Us Here or Call 813-951-7346. Locations in Tampa & Brandon.

Therapy for LGBTQ Issues, Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation

LGBTQ Relantionship Issues

Developing feelings of love or passion towards someone is not something to feel traumatized about. And yet there are many people who feel as if they have suffered in some way because of the gender they associate with, or because of their sexual orientation. People who are LGBTQ also often experience stress related to not just being a minority in the world, but also because of the stigma they face in various places. When going for therapy for issues related to your sexual orientation, gender identity, or romance related queries – it is important to go to a therapist who is a trained professional who excels in their field. This is to ensure the success of the therapy, as having the wrong counselor can work towards making the situation worse.

The full form of LGBTQ is Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer. The ‘Q’ can also stand for questioning – that is to say, that they are unsure about their sexual orientation. An LGBTQ person may face a broad range of issues while growing up. Starting from feeling isolated in their environment, to not understanding why they feel the way that they do, they can even be frightened of coming out to their own family. And that is largely not without fault – many families refuse to accept their children, if they come out as gay. This makes them hesitant to tell their family and creates a stressful situation for them. Similarly, venturing out into the world, they may feel as if they are isolated – that not many people understand them. They may feel as if their lives are distinctly different from those of the people around them, and this might cause them to become anxious and depressed.

Transgender Therapy

Those dealing with gender related issues may feel the same way. Some people might even want to transition from one gender to another but may feel conflicted about it due to the way the world around them operates. By engaging in good counselling, their issues could be well resolved and they could be on the road towards healing. Although most therapists are qualified to deal with LGBTQ issues, most members of the community feel more comfortable when they are opening up to a therapist who is also LGBTQ, or at least someone with wide experience in the field. It is also important to remember that anyone seeking to change their gender would need to go through mandatory counselling before. While such therapists may not be found in all communities – more and more counsellors have started offering distance services, and this could be massively beneficial to those members of the LGBTQ family who are looking for professional help.

What Issues Might LGBTQ People Face?

Despite rapidly growing cultural acceptance of diverse sexual and romantic orientations and gender identifications, oppression, discrimination, and marginalization of LGBTQ people persists. Coping with discrimination and oppression, coming out to one’s family, and sorting out an “authentic” sense of self in the face of social expectations and pressures can lead to higher levels of depression, anxiety, substance use, and other mental health concerns for LGBTQ people.

There is ample evidence that societal prejudice causes significant medical, psychological and other harms to LGBTQ people. For example, research on the issue of family acceptance of LGBTQ youth conducted at San Francisco State University found that "compared with LGBTQ young people who were not rejected or were only a little rejected by their parents and caregivers because of their gay or transgender identity, highly rejected LGBTQ young people were:

Undergoing counselling can be a good way to release pent up emotions, and work towards healing inner issues. By fully exploring what is bothering the person, their inner complexity slowly starts to make way towards a rational and happy approach to life. By understanding that there is nothing wrong with them, and finding a place where they can safely express themselves, they learn to open up their emotions.

Collaborative Therapeutic Services (CTS) seeks to maximize clients’ options by offering a variety of services, hours, locations and service providers with diverse specializations. We offer evening & weekend appointments. Have questions? Contact Us Here or Call 813-951-7346. Locations in Tampa & Brandon,