How is working with a counselor, different from a psychologist or psychiatrist?

Counselors approach therapy from a developmental and wellness perspective.

In short, counselors trust that individuals are on a natural path of growth and change. This normal maturation process can be stressful and create challenges in and of itself.

Each life stage or family transition inevitably requires persons to adapt and change, which one can be unprepared for or resist, creating “problems.” Rather than seeing that something is wrong with the person and needs to be fixed, a counselor focused on wellness works collaboratively to identify clients’ strengths and utilize the client’s own available resources to adapt to these life changes and resolve its challenges.

A counselor maintains that a positive, growth-oriented and integrative approach is most beneficial. Counselors can diagnose mental and psychological disorders, but cannot prescribe medicine. However, counselors can and often collaborate with a psychologist or psychiatrist to augment their efforts and improve functioning and further relief symptoms for the client.

A psychologist and a psychiatrist, both approach mental health concerns from a medical model, seeking to discover a problem and fix it, whether by psychotherapeutic interventions and/or by prescribing medicine. This is certainly helpful and necessary for many mental disorders, especially those that can be successfully treated with medications and there are some mental disorders that psychological testing is essential for diagnosis and treatment.

However, the problems people face do not always have an organic basis to them, rooted in something in the body that needs correcting, and for many issues, testing is not needed. Both of these professions are needed and helpful for treatment of mental disorders, but to approach human difficulties from a medical mindset can, at times, be harmful, as it pathologizes some issues and can diminish human resiliency.

Additionally, the medical mindset might not consider or emphasize how the mind, body and spirit work together to facilitate healing and wholeness. Understood from a wellness perspective, many perceived problems are quite understandable, adaptive and normal, given the circumstances. Providing support, counseling can foster self-awareness to unearth underlying dynamics and self-defeating patterns and to discover better strategies to successfully manage, cope and even overcome the challenges you face.