What’s the difference between a therapist, psychologist and a psychiatrist?

What’s the difference between a therapist, psychologist and a psychiatrist?
Photo by Christina @ wocintechchat.com / Unsplash

So, a therapist is a licensed mental health professional who is qualified to offer therapy. This includes psychologists and psychiatrists. And social workers and counsellors (the list goes on).

The real question here is: what’s the difference between a psychologist and a psychiatrist?

A psychologist is a health professional who offers various forms of talk therapy to treat mental health conditions.

A psychiatrist is a doctor who specialises in diagnosing and treating mental health conditions. This means they can prescribe medications in addition to providing talk therapy.

Hope that clears that up!