Hi Cynthia, I have anxiety, depression, and some OCD. I've also suffered a loss 3 years ago, and I haven't spoken to a therapist yet about it. I do talk about it with my boyfriend of 5 years, but since we argue frequently, it's hard to just talk to him. I am writing because I liked your profile and what you wrote.
Yesterday, my anxiety got so bad I couldn't sleep. I decided I need to find someone to talk to or I might head down a worse path than I'm already on. In summary, some of my issues I feel I have include defensiveness, indecisiveness, critical about myself and my partner(particularly physicalities), moodiness, and the inability to make long-term plans, goals, and logical decisions and stick to them, and regretting decisions I've made. It's a bad cycle. I don't know where I'm going in life and I'm scared I'll end up regretting everything I've done and miserable, looking at all my friends who are married with kids...unlike me. I have been taking Lexapro for over 2 years now. I am taking 5 mg, prior to that, 10 mg.
I am willing to put in time to get better, but I'm looking for the best route to getting healed effectively. And a person to talk to that doesn't drag it out just to keep a patient. I don't feel I have much time to waste. I'm almost 34 and feel like I'm still in my 20s and teens with the problems I'm still going through. And I can't stand to lose my job.
My questions for you are: What is the difference between MS, MFT; a Psychologist, a Counselor, and a Pyschiatrist (besides that they can prescribe drugs) in their approach to healing people and the route they take? I've heard about Psychotherapy. Is that something you do? What is the EMDR you wrote about? I appreciate you just having this question/answer board. I look forward to your response.
Ok, good question; I know it's very confusing. A counselor is a non-legal term used for anyone who counsels people, and is often used interchangably with "therapist," which refers to anyone who does psychotherapy. Psychotherapy is pretty much any treatment for emotional problems.
There are four different licenses people can get in California to legally do psychotherapy. Any of them can practice any method of psychotherapy. In terms of psychotherapy, there is no difference between the licenses. The differences are the number of years in school and the special emphasis in training. These four licenses are the MD, PhD, MFT and LCSW.
Only psychiatrists have an MD, and they get extensive training after medical school in treating emotional problems through medication and medical means, and/or psychotherapy. They are of course rigorously tested before becoming licensed. Only MDs can prescribe medication.
The psychologist who has a PhD or PsyD after completing at least five years of school after college is trained in psychological testing. Only psychologists do psychological testing for diagnosing emotional, personality, or learning problems. Psychologists have to pass rigorous tests and have sufficient experience to get licensed.
The other two licenses, the MFT, or Marriage and Family Therapist, and the LCSW, or Licensed Clinical Social Worker require masters degrees, which take two years after college (this is what the MS is, Masters of Science). Both require thousands of hours of experience and rigorous testing before getting licensed. MFTs get more training in working with couples, families and often children (but I don't do any of those; I see only individuals, even though I have an MFT license). Social workers get special training in serving communities, but again, all four licenses allow clinicians to do psychotherapy equally.
In practical terms, how good a therapist is does not depend much on their schooling or license. What makes a good therapist is talent, continuing education (after graduate school), personality, extensive personal work in their own therapy, and extentive experience, and supervised practice doing psychotherapy. In addition, finding a good match between therapist and client is important because therapists can be great for some people and terrible for others.
There are various different theoretical approaches to doing psychotherapy, and you might run into any of these working with someone with any of the licenses. They include: Psychoanalysis, psychoanalytic psychotherapy, Gestalt, Cognitive-Behavioral, relational, self-psychology, object relations, feminist, eclectic, transpersonal, existential, family systems, play therapy, sand tray, psychodynamic, EFT, EMDR. I believe that in most cases, the method matters less than the therapist's experience and skill.
As for EMDR, it's an amazing treatment for trauma and sometimes other issues. It doesn't work for everyone, but when it does work, it can be miraculous. Read more on my EMDR page on my site: http://www.womenspsychotherapy.com/EMDR.html
Cynthia W. Lubow, MFT
Depression and PTSD Specialist
For 25 years, compassionately helping women heal from depression, and it's
destructive criticism, losses and traumas, while building self-acceptance and confidence.
