Counselors and psychologists are professions that are different in functionality but often mistaken. A counselor is a person who has been trained to counsel or advice their clients in a certain domain. This domain is about which they have researched. A psychologist is a person who studies mental states and applies the research outcomes upon patients.
Counselor vs Psychologist
The main difference between Counselors and Psychologists is that Counselors have a broad scope. They can guide their clients in different fields according to the client’s needs. Psychologists, on the other hand, treat patients whose mental health is abnormal and need special care to behave like normal.
Counseling is the process of guiding the client for better mental health. A professional counselor treats the clients based on the domain in which the client is upset about. The counselor would have researched the potential solutions that are impactful for the clients. This process takes some sessions according to the situation of the client.
A psychologist is a qualified mental health caretaker. This person can understand the social and emotional trauma that the client is experiencing. This is a profession that requires graduation in the psychological department of Medicine. As the condition is a serious one, the practitioners require the license to apply it.
Comparison Table Between Counselor and Psychologist (in Tabular Form)
| Parameter | Counselor | Psychologist |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Counselors are professionals who advise and support the clients according to the field in which the client lacks confidence. | Psychologists are the practitioners who take care of the mental health of their clients. They assist the client so that their mental illness gets cured. |
| Duration | Counseling sessions are ranged from 3-5 according to the condition of the client. | Psychologists need more sessions as the situation of the patient is abnormal and cannot be cured instantly. |
| Scope | There are many types of counselors ranging from behavior counseling to marriage counseling | Their scope is narrow and they deal with only the patients whose mental behavior is abnormal. |
| Graduation | Counselors need a master degree to practice it as an occupation. | Psychologists normally need a doctoral degree in this specification. |
| Judgments | Counselors do not need much-researched works in their field. They make it work by communicating a lot with their clients. | Psychologists rely upon the research work and the facts that are proved to treat a patient. |
Who is Counselor?
Counseling is a broad study that is related to the improvement of a person’s well being. The counselors study the methods that they can apply to guide their clients in which they lack confidence. The counselors help the clients to gather the strength that they need to improvise themselves in a particular field.
This is a profession that was found many decades ago. Recently there has been a wide expansion in this area and there are many universities in the world that offer this degree. Counseling has a broad category of options and hence the person who aspires to study this should be clear about the domain.
Counselors are employed in many sectors according to the service they provide. The human resource section of every institution needs a counselor to take care of the mental health of their staff. Hence this field has a wide scope of opportunities for people aspiring to this degree. They can also give independent sessions according to their comfort.
Counselors are highly employed and hence can acquire the income they expect. This profession is a source of good income when the experience gathered is high. So while a person practices this for many years, he/she gets a chance to improve in the methods they use to treat their clients.
Who is Psychologist?
Psychologists are medical professionals who assist the patients whose mental health is unstable. They have been trained to treat the clients who are abnormal in their behavior and need extra care to improvise their mental fitness. The illness may vary since the amount of impact varies among patients.
Since there is a difference in the consequences of the illness among patients, there is a requirement of knowledge to regulate the effect of illness. Hence a lot of research work is done in all the domains to improve the effectiveness of treatment. This process is a serious one and hence the period of studies is greater than that of counseling.
Psychology is divided into two broad categories which are applied psychology and research-oriented psychology. Applied psychology deals with the professionals who are into the field of practicing psychology. They extend their services to the betterment of the society and improve the mental health of individuals.
Research-oriented psychologists are the people who do not practice it as a profession but research a specific topic. This research work can be taken as a material for the applied researches to practice it up on their patients. They are also called as scientists and scholars.
Main Differences Between Counselor and Psychologist
- Counseling is the process of supporting a client who lacks the guidance to achieve something. Psychology deals with the support that is provided by professionals to take care of patients whose mental health is disturbed.
- Counseling is comparatively a short process and only a few sessions are required for this. Psychologists demand a higher number of sessions for their patients since the impact of the condition differs in different patients.
- The scope of counseling is higher as there are different domains for which mental training is needed. Psychologists are professionals who only deal with the improvement of the mental health of their patients.
- A master degree from a registered university is needed to practice counseling as a profession whereas a doctoral degree is required to open consultation for psychologists.
- The research work required for counselors is less since they have to concentrate on improving their communication skills. Psychologists mostly rely upon researched materials to treat their patients.
Conclusion
Counseling is the process of extending mental support to a person who requires it. Counselors generally help clients in rescuing them from their emotional trauma. This trauma can be from different domains and people go to the counselors who can help them in that domain. Hence the field of counseling is a broad one.
Psychologists are professional medical doctors who assist the patients whose mental health is disturbed. They require good knowledge of the situation through which the patient goes through and hence this is a field with intense responsibilities. Psychologists practice the methods that they have researched or studied, upon the patients for the best result.
References
- https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/j.1556-6676.2000.tb02566.x
- https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ941703