Everyone will tell you that a licensed psychologist has a PhD and a licensed counselor has a Master’s degree. Fair enough. But if you’re looking for therapy, what can psychologists do that counselors can’t, and vice versa? And should you expect a better outcome with a PhD psychologist than a counselor with a Master’s degree? In short, what’s the difference between a counselor and a psychologist? And what about exempt, alternative therapists who have taken trainings, but don’t have a license or an advanced degree?

Is Conventional Wisdom True?

How many of these statements do you believe?

• A counselor deals with simple problems; a psychologist deals with complex problems.
• The difference in coursework between a counselor (with a Master’s degree) and a psychologist (with a PhD) is that a psychologist spends those extra years focusing on advanced therapy skills.
• Psychologists can diagnose “mental disorders”; counselors can’t.

None of those statements are true. Here’s the real deal:

• Counselors and psychologists deal with the same problems.
• The difference in coursework is that psychologists are trained to do scientific research. Therapy training is about the same.
• Both counselors and psychologists can diagnose “mental disorders.”

So, yes, I’m claiming that psychologists and counselors are the same thing, unless you’re looking for someone to run rats through a maze. Now, is this just my opinion, or do I have something to back it up? Perhaps something authoritative, like the legal definitions of the two professions? Read More...

Do degrees really matter? And, if so, when? Here’s my take, which is an engineer’s viewpoint. As you’d expect, that means that the practical skills you learn along the way are considered to be the main thing, while the social value of the degree is not given much weight. I’m not claiming that this viewpoint is the best one, just that it’s worth thinking about.

Three Examples

My father, Ambrose D. Plamondon, in spite of having polio as a teenager and being unable to walk far, even with a cane, spent a productive career as an aeronautical engineer. This was back in the early days of jets and space travel: the Fifties and Sixties. He took on the monumentally difficult task of designing the stabilization control systems for many spacecraft, including the Bluebird satellite and the Surveyor moon lander. He designed the loading system for the TOW missile. He was one of the inventors of the Hughes Magnetic Memory Drum, a revolutionary advance in mass storage in the Fifties, which helped reduce the size of computers so they could be put into fighter jets. Read More...

The “medical model of mental illness” and the new fifth edition of the DSM (DSM-V) have been kicked around by a lot of people recently. But let’s not lose track of the fact that the DSM serves a useful purpose. Most people wouldn’t put ketchup on everything, but they won’t claim that ketchup is useless, either. So, too, with the DSM.

Let’s keep in mind that DSM stands for “diagnostic and statistical manual,” and its main purpose is to allow different professionals to talk to each other with an agreed-upon vocabulary, and for records and statistics to be kept that had an agreed-upon meaning. This function is essential!

For example, suppose a guy goes on the rampage and breaks 57 windshields with a baseball bat because (he claims) this is the only way to keep the vampires at bay. After the sound of broken glass dies away, any number of people want to know, “Now what?” — starting with “jail or hospital?” and continuing on down the line. What to do depends on what’s going on with this dude, and that’ll influence actions by the cops, the courts, the hospital, the health-insurance company, the prosecuting and defense lawyers, his placement or probation if found guilty, and on and on. Read More...