What is the Difference? Psychologist vs Therapist

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If you’re look­ing to help peo­ple through coun­sel­ing, ther­a­py or pro­vide com­pa­ra­ble ser­vices, earn­ing a degree in psy­chol­o­gy can pro­pel you on your path. What’s great about earn­ing a Bach­e­lor’s of Sci­ence in Psy­chol­o­gy is it pro­vides a foun­da­tion that can become the first step towards a cor­nu­copia of dif­fer­ent careers. Psy­chol­o­gy grad­u­ates go on to work in busi­ness, health ser­vices, edu­ca­tion, gov­ern­ment, and many oth­er sec­tors in the evolv­ing, frag­ile mod­ern econ­o­my. Many of the areas Psy­chol­o­gy grad­u­ates end up pur­su­ing careers in are expect­ed to see above-aver­age growth for the fore­see­able future, espe­cial­ly as the Boomer pop­u­la­tion ages and needs more health ser­vices, among oth­er sim­i­lar­ly impact­ful trends.

Going to school is extreme­ly dif­fi­cult, espe­cial­ly if you’re not rich or have to con­tend with ongo­ing fam­i­ly and work com­mit­ments. That’s why we’ve ranked the fastest online psy­chol­o­gy BS degrees. On this list you’ll find schools that were cho­sen based on their accel­er­at­ed cours­es, trans­fer cred­its, region­al accred­i­ta­tion, afford­abil­i­ty and sev­er­al oth­er fac­tors. Our goal is to help you find a pro­gram where you can earn a degree at a time­ly pace and start using it to reshape or mold your bur­geon­ing career. If you’re read­ing that rank­ing and look­ing to bet­ter under­stand two major options in careers for Psych grad­u­ates, let’s con­sid­er the dif­fer­ences between being a psy­chol­o­gist vs. a therapist.

Psychologist vs. Therapist

Psy­chol­o­gists:

  • Hold an advanced psy­chol­o­gy degree
  • Work with psy­chi­a­trists who pre­scribe medicine
  • Diag­nose dis­or­ders and oth­er issues of their patients and or clients
  • Design effec­tive treat­ments after con­duct­ing diagnoses
  • Help those they treat make deci­sions and express feelings
  • Guide and sup­port their patients/clients

Ther­a­pists:

  • Can refer to psy­chol­o­gists, psy­chi­a­trists, mar­riage coun­selors, life coach­es, and social workers
  • A broad­er num­ber of degrees (and dis­ci­plines) qual­i­fy pro­fes­sion­als to work in these posi­tions, includ­ing BSc’s, Master’s degree, PhD, MD or cer­tifi­cate in fields like social work, sub­stance abuse, clin­i­cal psy­chol­o­gy, psy­chi­a­try, coun­sel­ing and others
  • Also help patients/clients with deci­sions and express­ing feel­ings, while sup­port­ing and guid­ing them

It’s impor­tant to remem­ber there are a num­ber of dif­fer­ences between the licen­sure for dif­fer­ent Psy­chol­o­gy-relat­ed posi­tions depend­ing on the state you live in, and what you want to do with your degree. Psy­chol­o­gists gen­er­al­ly have more advanced degrees and strin­gent licen­sure require­ments. Ther­a­pists often have less require­ments and/or obsta­cles to prac­tice, but not nec­es­sar­i­ly. There are plen­ty of dif­fer­ences in psy­chol­o­gist vs. ther­a­pist careers, but also many sim­i­lar­i­ties. One thing’s for sure, if you’re look­ing to earn your BSc in Psy­chol­o­gy, you don’t need to make any defin­ing deci­sions about your career. At most, you can start to plan your career in the­o­ry, and per­haps pick a pro­gram that reflects your goals in either psy­chol­o­gy or ther­a­py work. Once again, a great place to start the search for an under­grad­u­ate Psy­chol­o­gy pro­gram that will cost less and be com­plet­ed quick­er can be found here.

Relat­ed:

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