Hey, pop quiz. Do you know the difference between a marriage and family therapist, a clinical social worker, a professional clinical counselor, a psychologist, and a psychiatrist?

And I would say that for most people that email me are come into my office or write my name on a check, actually even people in my immediate family, I am pretty sure that that answer is no.

And does it even matter? Kind of. I remember one time in particular where somebody was desperately

trying to get a family member in to see me. I'd worked with someone else in their family.

And so despite a very full schedule, I made time I fit this person in. And they came into the

first session. And as I started to lay out the standard things that a therapist says in their first session about confidentiality, harmed yourself and others, don't hurt old people. If I bump into you on the street, et cetera, he hands me this piece of paper, and it has a list of medications on it. And I looked at him and I thanked him and I started up again with my spiel. And he cuts me off and said, hey, no, I only have a really short amount of time. And I'm out of this medication. I'm curious what you thought about this other one. Would you recommend that I switch this one up? Would you bump up the dosage? And I thought to myself, you know, kind of, hey, easy there, champ. We literally have 47 more minutes. We'll get to the medications as this initial assessment happens. And he cuts me off again. And he asked me if I will be able to write him a prescription for a refill of his current meds, nonetheless, because he is running out. And I explained that I was a licensed marriage and family therapist and that I couldn't write prescriptions.

And he said, okay, honestly, I don't want to waste your time, but that's all I'm looking for.

And he really did. He literally got up and he left. So in that scenario, it definitely helps to know

the difference. So simply put, the first three examples I gave, a marriage and family therapist,

that would be me,

a clinical social worker, a professional clinical counselor.

We all received bachelor's degrees.

And then we went on to get master's degrees in some type of counseling or social work program.

And so what we can do is we can then see clients in one-on-one therapy settings and some like clinical social workers can see clients

like I do and they can also go into the community and they connect people with resources.

And if you didn't want to stop with the master's degree, then you go on to get your

sci-D or doctorate of psychology, which typically takes about another three years.

And that is what makes you a clinical psychologist and the title of doctor.

And in that scenario,

you're more likely to work with individuals who maybe have more severe mental illness. And you also work more with psychological testing. So a psychiatrist then, that is the medical doctor. They've

literally gone to medical school. They've delivered babies. They've done their rounds. But then they

settle into the brain, the mental health,

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