When it comes to taking care of your emotional well-being, mental health care is invaluable. But not all mental health treatments are the same, and not all mental health professionals offer the same types of approach.
If you’re just starting to explore treatment options for your mental health, you may feel overwhelmed by the options or unsure which type of mental health professional is the best match for you. To simplify the selection, here’s what to know about common mental health professionals, the treatments and therapy they offer and the type of education they are required to receive.
[See: Apps to Support Your Mental Health]
Types of Mental Health Professionals
Mental health professionals come from a variety of educational backgrounds. Some mental health professionals go to medical school and become licensed to provide medical treatments, whereas others pursue doctoral or master’s degrees in fields like psychology, counseling or social work to specialize in nonmedical treatments.
If you want to explore medical treatments like medications for your mental health, a mental health professional with medical training may be a good fit for you. But if you want to talk to someone about personal challenges or receive support in developing skills, a nonmedical professional who specializes in those areas may meet your needs.
Psychiatrists
Some mental health professionals have medical degrees, enabling them to act as medical practitioners and prescribe medications.
Psychiatrists are mental health professionals — specifically medical doctors — who can offer patients a combination of biological and psychological treatments. Biological treatments include medication-based treatments, such as drugs that treat depression or anxiety, and in-clinic interventions, such as transcranial magnetic stimulation or ketamine infusions, whereas psychological treatments include interventions like talk therapy, or psychotherapy.
“Our aim is to integrate these different kinds of treatment in order to help patients feel better and reach their functional goals,” says Dr. Brian Boyle, chief psychiatrist at Stella Mental Health, the nation’s largest interventional psychiatry practice, which specializes in treating anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. Boyle is based in Boston.
Psychiatrists may at times collaborate with other experts if doing so may help ensure safe and effective patient care. This can include collaboration with mental health professionals in other disciplines, like psychologists, medical doctors or other psychiatrists.
Psychiatrists must hold a Doctor of Medicine degree, or MD, or a Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine degree, or DO, from an accredited medical school in order to practice. They also must complete licensing exams and a four-year medical residency.
Psychiatric nurse practitioners
Psychiatric nurse practitioners are mental health professionals who provide similar services as psychiatrists, but who come from different training backgrounds. Rather than go to medical school to become a doctor, psychiatric nurse practitioners complete nursing school and advanced nursing training with a specialization in psychiatry.
“Psychiatric nurse practitioners are nurses who have received formal training in the diagnosis and management of psychiatric illness, most often using medications or other biological interventions,” Boyle says. “They typically work under the supervision of a psychiatrist, though may practice independently after years of supervised work.”
Like psychiatrists, psychiatric nurse practitioners can prescribe and administer medications. Depending on what state they practice in, however, psychiatric nurse practitioners may only be able to prescribe medications while under the supervision or discretion of a psychiatrist. In some states, psychiatric nurse practitioners may be subject to supervision for a certain number of hours before being able to prescribe medications on their own.
In addition to medication administration, psychiatric nurse practitioners can often provide psychological treatment interventions, like psychotherapy.
Psychotherapists
Some mental health professionals have doctoral degrees, which enable them to diagnose and work closely with patients, but typically do not permit them to prescribe medications.
Psychotherapists refer to mental health professionals who administer psychotherapy — a range of nonmedication treatment interventions that support a patient’s mental and emotional well-being. Because the scope of psychotherapy is so broad, individual psychotherapists may specialize in specific methods or be more experienced with certain techniques than others. Additionally, psychotherapists may approach the same method in different ways — making it important for you to consider not just the type of mental health professional you want to work with but if their style of therapy aligns with your treatment goals.
“It’s somewhat rare for one clinician to do psychotherapy exactly how another clinician would do psychotherapy,” says Dr. Robert McCarron, a professor in the department of psychiatry and human behavior at the University of California–Irvine School of Medicine and a board-certified psychiatrist at UCI Health. “There’s much room for variance in terms of the delivery of psychotherapy.”
While the full list is expansive, three widely used psychotherapy techniques are:
— Supportive psychotherapy, which is a type of psychotherapy that focuses on helping the patient understand and develop healthy coping strategies.
— Cognitive behavioral therapy, which is a type of psychotherapy that focuses on helping the patient self-identify dysfunctional thought patterns that may be negatively influencing their emotions or feelings.
— Psychodynamic psychotherapy, which is a more complex, longer-term psychotherapy that takes into account the patient’s childhood and early development and how that may have impacted their current mental health state.
Several types of mental health professionals listed below can also serve as psychotherapists — as can psychiatrists and psychiatric nurses.
Psychologist
Psychologists are mental health professionals who are highly educated in human behavior. To practice psychology, psychologists typically need to complete a doctoral degree, such as the following:
— Doctor of Philosophy, or PhD
— Doctor of Psychology, or PsyD
— Doctor of Education, or EdD
They also need to meet state-specific requirements for licensure, which can vary.
Once licensed, psychologists may work in patient-facing or nonpatient-facing roles. Some psychologists who work with patients specialize in clinical or counseling psychology and offer psychotherapy treatments. When working with patients, psychologists can offer psychological but not biological treatments and do not administer medications. Some psychologists who do not work with patients specialize in research or forensics, or work as expert advisors to doctors to help shape treatment plans.
Counselors
Counselors can help with life transitions, such as adjusting to new surroundings; juggling responsibilities such as work, school and family; coping with test anxiety; struggling with low self-esteem or a lack of assertiveness; and relationship problems. Counselors also work with the military and LGBTQ community and in disaster zones, among others.
Professional counselors have a graduate degree in counseling — either master’s or doctoral. Specific certifications depend on the specialty; school counselors need to be licensed by a state education department to work in a public school, for example. More than 3,000 hours of supervised field experience are typically required. Counselor training emphasizes respect for sexual orientation, religion, gender, ethnicity and culture, and confidentiality is considered a cornerstone.
Patients typically meet with their counselor for 50 minutes once a week — shorter for kids and in time-pressed settings like schools. Though it depends on each person’s needs, the relationship tends to last five visits.
Social workers
Some mental health professionals have master’s degrees, and can perform many aspects of therapy and mental health support.
Social workers are mental health professionals who are trained to perform psychotherapy with an emphasis on connecting people to social or community support. Social workers are required to attend graduate school in social work and to earn a Master of Social Work, or MSW, degree. They can also become licensed as a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, or LCSW.
Social workers cannot prescribe medications.
Art therapists
Art therapists are mental health professionals that combine psychological therapy with art-making and creative processes. They may help patients express or process emotions through artwork, and may use forms of psychotherapy.
Art therapists are required to earn a master’s degree or higher and become a registered art therapist, or ATR, or a board-certified art therapist, or ATR-BC.
[Read: Low-Cost Therapy Options for Every Budget.]
Other Types of Mental Health Professionals
Some mental health professionals do not hold advanced clinical degrees, and may instead undergo specialized trainings or certificate programs for their role. They are still trained to provide compassionate support and high-quality mental health services, which generally does not involve medical or psychotherapy interventions.
Recreational therapists
Recreational therapists are mental health professionals who assist patients in physical movement activities with the goal of promoting both physical and psychological health, recovery and well-being. Recreational therapists are typically required to complete a bachelor’s degree in recreational therapy or a related field.
Depending on the state they are practicing in, the therapist may also need to obtain a Certified Therapeutic Recreation Specialist license, which is issued by the National Council for Therapeutic Recreation Certification. As of 2024, only five states — New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oklahoma and Utah — Washington, D.C. and Puerto Rico required licensing for recreational therapists.
Without more advanced degrees, recreational therapists are not qualified to administer medications or psychotherapy to patients.
Recreational therapy is often used for people with autism. They can also help people regain their ability to play soccer after a car accident. Or they might help someone reach emotional goals through pottery — the possibilities are broad. But the overall concept is that leisure activities and hobbies can better someone’s quality of life, and these therapists are experts in how play can be therapeutic.
According to the American Therapeutic Recreation Association, recreational therapy is a service used to “restore, remediate and rehabilitate a person’s level of functioning and independence in life activities, to promote health and wellness as well as reduce or eliminate the activity limitations and restrictions to participation in life situations caused by an illness or disabling condition.”
[See: Physical Therapy vs. Occupational Therapy: What’s the Difference?]
Psychiatric technician
Psychiatric technicians are mental health professionals who work as aides to psychiatrists, other types of doctors or registered nurses assisting in a patient’s mental health care.
Psychiatric technicians have the opportunity to become nationally certified by the American Association of Psychiatric Technicians and receive the title of Nationally Certified Psychiatric Technician, or NCPT. There are four levels of NCPT certifications which require different starting levels of education, ranging from a high school diploma for level-one certifications to a bachelor’s degree for level four.
Psychiatric technicians may assist patients with social support, basic needs assistance, behavioral monitoring and enrichment activities, particularly in inpatient facilities or hospital settings. They may also administer medication under supervision and can be tasked with restraining patients who are physically violent.
Psychiatric technicians typically cannot prescribe medications or administer psychotherapy.
Other types of mental health support
While it can be beneficial to work with a licensed mental health professional, you may be able to receive quality mental health support in other places too.
For instance, if you are struggling with alcohol or drug use, Sandra Pisano, director of behavioral health at AltaMed Health Services in Los Angeles, says you may consider visiting a support group such as Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous.
These groups are often facilitated by an individual who is skilled in recovery work, but who may not be a licensed, mental health professional. Despite this, many participants say that groups like AA and NA have been monumentally helpful for their mental health and substance use recovery journeys.
[READ: How Seasonal Allergies Can Impact Mental Health]
Be Wary of Mental Health Professionals Who Overpromise
Knowledge is powerful, and a mental health professional with years and years of education may be able to offer more mental health support than someone who has had less training. However, this is not always the case, and some people may benefit more from working with a recreational therapist or social worker than they would from working with a clinical psychiatrist.
Perhaps more important than your mental health expert’s education level is their integrity — and their honesty about the types of services they can or can’t provide. While this may seem like a low bar, in the age of social media scams and often-unqualified mental health influencers, it can be an easy bar to trip over.
“It’s a mess out there on social media with lots of opinions and people with no clinical experience promising various solutions,” says Dr. Alex Dimitriu, a psychiatrist and sleep medicine specialist and founder of Menlo Park Psychiatry & Sleep Medicine in Menlo Park, California.
“Be cautious of anyone practicing outside of their training or expertise,” he adds.
[READ: How to Find a Culturally Competent Therapist]
What to Consider When Choosing a Mental Health Professional
Before you start your search for a mental health professional, Pisano recommends thinking about the goals you want to achieve through your treatment and what type of interventions might help you meet them. Is medication important to you? Do you need to talk — or draw — things out?
From there, she suggests conducting some research to find someone who is a good fit. Some steps you can take include:
1. Narrow your options through your medical insurance. If you are insured, seek out a list of mental health providers in your area or virtually who accept your insurance.
2. Ask your friends. If you have trustworthy friends or colleagues, it never hurts to ask for suggestions.
3. Do your own homework too. Even if you have trustworthy friends and colleagues, you’ll want to take time to verify that the people they recommend are qualified in treatment areas you desire — and that you think they will be a good fit for your needs. Try out some searches online and read online reviews.
4. Think about your bandwidth and communication style. Are you looking for virtual or in-person appointments? What services do these professionals provide?
Last, you’ll want to think about how you feel about this professional emotionally, and if they are someone that you can trust to help you. Some professionals offer short calls or sessions where you can meet them and feel out your emotional connection before proceeding with treatment. Consider if this is something you want to do.
“Most people are looking for a therapist who is engaging, easy to connect with, caring, compassionate, respectful, nonjudgmental (and who can) provide safe, secure and confidential services,” Pisano says.
And remember, the professional that is the best fit for you might not be the best fit for someone else — and that’s OK.
“The selection of a mental health professional should be guided by the nature, complexity and severity of mental health problems with which the patient is suffering,” Boyle says. “It’s not that some professionals are ‘better’ or ‘worse’ than others, but it may well be that a particular professional is a better fit for a given patient. Ultimately, it is fit that matters.”
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Types of Mental Health Professionals: From Psychologists and Psychiatrists to Counselors and Social Workers originally appeared on usnews.com
