Types of Mental Health Professionals
Psychiatrist
Though there are many types of health professionals, they all share the same goal. They all help people take control of any major issues in their lives and as well as advising those who are in need of assistance in mental, emotional, or relationship issues. An example of a health professional would be a psychiatrist. Psychiatrists are known to diagnose and treat behavioral disorders with the use of psychiatric medicine, exams, and lab tests. They are considered as doctors with a degree in medicine which allows them to prescribe medications to benefit mental and emotional issues to patients. In this field, their major focus are in children and adolescents, forensic, and learning disabilities.
Family and Marriage Counselor
A family and marriage counselor specializes in complications in families and married couples. During the sessions, it is mainly focused on issues to find resolutions in which that would bring couples and/or families back together. They use different methods such as one-on-one or group sessions. With this, it resembles as a major intervention with a goal to resolve major dilemmas within families. It is a form of psychotherapy that pinpoints behaviors in family members to find what is really affecting the whole relationship within the family or couple. A marriage and family therapist must pass a state licensing exam or MFT exam. The physical and psychological problems treated by these health professionals consists couple conflict, parent and child conflict, alcohol and drug abuse, disorders from weight problems to eating disorders, behavior problems within the children in the family, etc.
Social Worker
Another type of health professional are social workers who devote their time in helping those cope with issues in their everyday lives and as well as helping to solve them. Clinical social workers diagnose and treat mental, behavioral, and emotional problems. They work in a wide range of settings such as schools, health clinics, private practices, etc. Some other cases social workers are involved in are adopting a child or coping with a terminal illness. Though there are different types of fields social workers are involved in, child and family social workers help assist children who are abused and/or neglected by their families. They help support foster families and help to reunite families with visits to make a documentation on their conditions. Child and family social workers are not just one type of social workers. There are many types in this field consists school social workers, healthcare social workers, and mental health and substance abuse social workers.
Psychotherapy
Another term for “talk therapy” is considered to be psychotherapy. It is a method used for people to help cope with their mental illness and/or emotional problems. Patients speak about their troubles and personal feelings with therapists in intimate sessions. Psychotherapy is beneficial because it allows patients to verbally discuss about their lives to a professional whom they seek help from. “Psychotherapy has been shown to improve emotions and behaviors and to be linked with positive changes in the brain and body. The benefits also include fewer sick days, less disability, fewer medical problems, and increased work satisfaction” (Parekh). With this idea, psychotherapy is known to benefit and comfort those who would rather verbally speak about their mental state of mind whether it is in a group or one-on-one.
Basic Features of Psychotherapy
Psychotherapy sessions involve different techniques in approaching to honest and open experiences with mental health professionals. Though there is a wide variety of psychotherapy, there are important features in this field. Building a real relationship and trust between the therapist and patient plays a big role in this form of therapy. “Psychotherapy provides the patient a human connection with an empathic and caring individual, which should be health promoting, especially for patients who have impoverished or chaotic social relations” (Wampold). Carl Rodgers believed that the patient must take a lead role. Rodgers also mentioned therapists must be able to have an unconditional positive regard and as well as having genuineness and empathy toward clients. The main goal is to be able to make the patient feel comfortable as possible to allow them to to gain an initial bond with the therapist in order to express their distress.
Another important feature in psychotherapy is the ability to accept the closing chapter of the treatment when the patient no longer needs any furthermore assistance. A crucial aspect of the relationship is when the client is fully able to achieve the basic skills that they have learned about verbally speaking about their emotions in order to disregard the security of attachment with their therapist. To accomplish this, therapists must be fully compassionate and understanding toward their clients from the starting day of the session until the end. It is considered highly crucial that a positive therapeutic relationship leads to a successful outcome in any form of psychotherapy. Becoming the active listener is the most effective and competent for the other person communicating about their difficulties. Assisting patients in building their own solutions to their complications allows them to feel more accepting and mentally stronger as well as being prepared toward future problems.
Drug Therapy
In addition to types of therapy, drug therapy is known for using medication to treat different kinds of diseases. Patients can be prescribed with certain medication by their healthcare provider or physician to treat most mental and physical conditions such as pain from post surgery and accidents, symptoms of depression, and resisting to addiction. In this category of therapy, drug therapy can result in side effects that includes headaches, dizziness, and etc. It is known to be an effective treatment for most mental disorders as well. Drug therapy is used to treat different types of psychological disorders such as attention deficit/hyperactive disorder (ADHD), schizophrenia, depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, Tourette’s syndrome, and more. With the medication prescribed, the drugs given begin to uptake with receptors or enzymes in cells to cure and reduce illness.
Basic Features of Drug Therapy
Drug therapy requires a prescription professional medical physicians, some include anti-depressants, anti-psychotics, anti-anxiety drugs, and mood stabilizers. A major feature in this form of therapy allows imbalanced brain chemistry to become stabilized. For example, anti-depressants are known to block the disruption of serotonin in the brain. Patients usually seek drug therapy rather than the traditional talk therapy because the feel as if they do not see any progress in the change of their behavior and/or emotions. Drug therapies only treat symptoms but not the actual problem. Therefore, patients must continuously take these medications or the symptoms may reappear. Another feature in drug therapy would be the benefit in which the medication patients take in order to even participate in therapeutic processes. With the proper doses and precautions, drug therapy is useful due to the immediate effects from medication.