Whats the difference between a psychologist and a psychiatrist?
A person who has a first degree in psychology can call themselves a Psychologist without any further training. A Clinical Psychologist (my qualification) has completed at least a three-year postgraduate degree, which is both an academic and a clinical/practical training. Clinical psychologists work with a wide range of people experiencing all sorts of difficulties related to the mind and emotions, using different forms of talking therapy. A Psychiatrist is a medical doctor who, after basic medical training, has specialised in Psychiatry (as opposed to, for example, orthopaedics or surgery). They assess people, prescribe medication when appropriate, admit severely unwell people to hospital and occasionally have to section them under the Mental Health Act. On the whole, if a talking therapy is needed, they refer people to a Clinical Psychologist.
That may sound like a setup for a knee-slapper, but it’s actually a good question, and many people don’t know the full answer. It’s not as simple as who tends to what, like the difference between a goatherd and shepherd. Both kinds of professionals treat people with problems that vary widely by degree and type, from mild anxiety to schizophrenia. Both can practice psychotherapy, and both can do research. The short answer is, psychiatrists are medical doctors and psychologists are not. The suffix -iatry means(medical treatment,) and -logy means (science) or (theory.) So psychiatry is the medical treatment of the psyche, and psychology is the science of the psyche. Their Credentials Psychiatrists begin their careers in medical school. After earning their MD, they go on to four years of residency training in mental health, typically at a hospital’s psychiatric department. According to Marcia Goin, MD, past-president of the American Psychiatric Association and a clinical professor of psych
