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What to Look for in a Mental Health Professional
A guide for people looking for some help
There are a lot of confusing labels, titles, and licenses in the field of clinical mental health. I’ve had many friends and family members come to me asking how to start looking for a professional to talk to. Usually, I direct them to PsychologyToday.com and sort by location.
But then I ran into another problem. Those some friends and family would come back and ask what “Psychodynamic, CBT, LPC, or MSW” mean?
Today I’d like to provide a comprehensive guide to choosing a mental health practitioner that best fits your needs and what you are looking for. I’m going to mostly focus on types of mental health therapy, i.e., what different types of therapy hope to achieve through their unique ways of working with individuals. I’ll also provide a quick guide to licensure titles and degrees.
Types of Mental Health Therapists
By and large, mental health therapy, or psychotherapy, occurs when two or more individuals — one professional and one patient — talk together, usually about the patient’s concerns, issues, and struggles that they believe to originate in the mind, not the organs. (I.e., go to your physician for a cold but your psychotherapist for anxiety.)
