blackemerald1
VIP Member
I beg to differ but don't know what country State/Territory you hale from but in my Country, you must be a fully qualified Doctor which takes 6 years including 1 year as a Intern:: then if you wish to specialise a further 6, including a year of being assessed by a Sr Consultant, then if you decide to further specialize into just one field of Psych, you are required to get into that area, do further study specific to that. Then you must pass a Board of peers & then you can hang your Degrees on the wall as a Doctor (thereby being allowed to prescribe medications/treatment only Doctors can do...legally) As a general Psych., & if you have done the specialized area, you get to hang that one up.
A psychologist, does a Degree in psychology but is not a Doctor & cannot dispense medication or treatment that falls within the confines of what Doctors can legally do. After attaining a Degree in psychology, one has to do one year under the supervision of a Senior Psychologist & if you really want to, you can go on from there into specialist fields.
A Councilor doesn't have to do such rigorous training, in fact as I found out to my severe detriment there are no privacy laws, nothing that binds them to anything really. You can hang out a shingle saying your a Counselor in Alphabet Soup & nobody can stop you.
How do I know this, I have a close relative whom I watched go into specialist psych., level & its all life long learning, as studies, medications etc are done. She has tree loads of crap to read, conferences etc to go to, write papers for publishing in peer related journals. It's pretty full on stuff at that level. Little wonder most psych's call it a done deal when they get that far, they still are very valuable but its a long learning curve.
In this country we don't have enough health care professionals, least of all in mental health.
A psychologist, does a Degree in psychology but is not a Doctor & cannot dispense medication or treatment that falls within the confines of what Doctors can legally do. After attaining a Degree in psychology, one has to do one year under the supervision of a Senior Psychologist & if you really want to, you can go on from there into specialist fields.
A Councilor doesn't have to do such rigorous training, in fact as I found out to my severe detriment there are no privacy laws, nothing that binds them to anything really. You can hang out a shingle saying your a Counselor in Alphabet Soup & nobody can stop you.
How do I know this, I have a close relative whom I watched go into specialist psych., level & its all life long learning, as studies, medications etc are done. She has tree loads of crap to read, conferences etc to go to, write papers for publishing in peer related journals. It's pretty full on stuff at that level. Little wonder most psych's call it a done deal when they get that far, they still are very valuable but its a long learning curve.
In this country we don't have enough health care professionals, least of all in mental health.
