Psychologists are (generally) the most well-trained of the three. You have different fields of psychology - sports, organisational, educational, clinical, counselling etc. What you're probably thinking of in your comparison is a counselling psychologist. A psychologist must have a degree in psychology, a 4th year of some kind, and then clinical supervision. These days I believe you need a Master's degree to be a registered psychologist.
A social worker is also uni trained. I don't know as much about social workers, but as I understand it they are more hands-on than psychologists. For example, in hospital a social worker might come and help you see to some of your physical needs (eg if an elderly person is going home to an empty house they would help you access services such as visiting nurses/meals on wheels). But I believe social workers can do some kinds of counselling.
A counsellor needs at least a diploma (TAFE-level) of counselling and clinical supervision to be registered. (Although there are uni degrees in counselling). Off the top of my head I can't tell you if registration is compulsory for counsellors, but if I was going to one I would certainly only want to go to a registered one.
In terms of what each of them are for, there is some overlap. Medicare rebates and PHI make a difference - more likely to get money back for seeing a psychologist. They would use different techniques according to their training, but so would 10 different counsellors/psychologists - just depends on what models of counselling they prefer.
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks