What Mental Health Practitioner is Right for You?
Mental health was the great taboo. If you were anxious, it’s because you were weak. If you couldn’t cope with whatever life threw at you, it’s because you were failing. Successful, strong people don’t suffer like that, do they? But of course – we all do. It’s just that few of us speak about it.
Prince William, Duke of Cambridge
With record numbers of people seeking support for their mental health, in the UK anyway, it’s sometimes difficult to choose which kind of therapy is going to be best for you as an individual, in the week I came across a beautifully written article on the types of mental health practitioner that are available and what they do – here’s a snippet;
Psychotherapist
A psychotherapist enables someone to pay attention to their own mind. The person can hopefully use that insight to start to overcome their difficulties.
Training needed
Any qualified psychotherapist has been through the process themselves. They’ve come to understand the human psyche through exploring the hidden recesses of their own mind.
What they do
It’s a cure through exploring difficulties in the present, such as relationships and workplace issues, and the past – for example childhood or family dynamics. All the things that make us human and contribute to our strengths but can also be part of our weaknesses. Through learning to talk about those, hopefully a person becomes freer in their thinking about themselves and more flexible to cope with life’s challenges.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapist (ACT)
The Acceptance is about accepting our thoughts and feelings and being aware of them without judging. The C stands for committing to direction in line with our values, and the T relates to taking action in line with our values.
Training needed
You ideally want a psychotherapist or psychologist who’s registered and accredited, already working
therapeutically, to deliver ACT.
What they do
ACT works through the traditional therapeutic process to build psychological flexibility and help a person face life’s problems. They might engage in weekly 50-minute sessions. How many sessions are needed depends on the individual.
Counsellor
A counsellor can support someone with common mental health concerns such as stress
and anxiety, time management issues, or adjusting to a remote working environment. They can’t
support people with clinical symptoms, and will refer such cases to a psychotherapist, psychiatrist or clinical psychologist.
Training needed
While there’s no mandatory training required to become a counsellor, most employers will expect counsellors to be trained and accredited. The British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) has a list of counselling courses.
What they do
In the first session they will ask about a person’s general wellbeing and how they’ve been spending time recently. During subsequent sessions they support the person with their issues. Finally, they will look at whether the person will benefit from further support of some kind.
Psychiatrist
A psychiatrist is a medical doctor who specialises in mental health. They’ve gone through medical school and trained as a regular doctor before deciding to specialise.
Training needed
They spend years as a junior doctor and trainee, gathering experience and doing exams until reaching the level of consultant psychiatrist.
What they do
They can give lifestyle and therapy advice, but particularly they can look at medication and risk. They can help decide where a person needs to be treated and how regularly. Sometimes therapy works brilliantly and people don’t really need to see a medical doctor. Other times therapy and medication might be the answer, or there might be something else going on that needs investigating.
Cognitive Behavioural Therapist (CBT)
A CBT therapist works with people’s thoughts and behaviour to change the way they feel and
improve their quality of life and happiness.
Training needed
CBT therapists accredited by the British Association for Behaviour and Cognitive Therapies (BABCP) will have had core professional mental health training or a recognised equivalent, plus specific CBT training and experience.
What they do
CBT therapists will talk to someone and help them understand how their thoughts, beliefs and attitudes interact with their feelings and actions. They aim to make swift progress by focusing on current issues rather than ones from the past, breaking down problems into smaller parts and looking for practical ways to improve a person’s state of mind.
Mindfulness Teacher
Mindfulness is a training and an exploration of the possibilities of attention. It looks at the different
things we can pay attention to, and the different ways we can do that.
Training needed
To be accredited by the British Association of Mindfulness-based Approaches (BAMBA), a Mindfulness Teacher needs to have been trained to teach at least one of a range of interventions, from Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction to Mindfulness Based Childbirth and Parenting.
What they do
Mindfulness Teachers help people discover how they are relating to what arises in each moment. They aim to show that there are many options in what we pay attention to and the qualities of that attention.
I hope that helps you understand and decide which mental health practitioner might be able to help you!
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