We often hear about our society’s high regard for health professionals, yet most of us rarely know about the weight of their responsibilities to the community.
Therapists are licensed medical practitioners who specialise in helping people who are mentally and emotionally disturbed, and provide them with treatment and rehabilitation.
A therapist’s work is oftentimes associated with that of psychologists, which is, of course, true.
But, it can also include others who provide a variety of services like social workers, counsellors, life coaches, and many others.
Read on to learn about the different types of therapists and how they can help you.
- Marriage and family therapists: They are involved in helping families cope with the many issues affecting them. They also provide counselling to married couples whose marriage is on the brink of collapse, or even partners with just minor issues.
- Substance abuse therapists: They help people whose lives are ruined due to alcohol and drug addiction and provide their patients with coping techniques to achieve self-control over their impulses.
- Grief and loss therapists: They help patients cope with the pain due to the loss of a loved one, such as death or a long battle with a fatal illness.
- Child and adolescent therapists: They help children who have behavioural issues like borderline personality, learning disabilities, family problems, and dealing with schools and grades. For adolescents, they provide help to those who have anxiety problems pertaining to growing pains, getting a job, managing relationships, and so much more.
- Divorce therapists: They deal with couples who are unable to overcome their marital issues and have decided to divorce.
- Group therapists: They deal with a group of people who happen to have similar issues. These issues are specific to their commonalities such as age, gender, social status and religious beliefs.
- Clinical social work therapists: They provide services to many different populations, both in urban and remote areas. They often work in the community with families who need intervention.
Therapists use different theories and psychotherapeutic techniques to help their clients improve their cognitive and emotional state. Indeed, therapists work wonders not just in the lives of their patients, but also in their families and communities as well.
A therapist’s job consists of being able to effectively understand a client’s problem and to develop a treatment plan collaboratively with the client.
This requires therapists to be resourceful and flexible so that they can treat their clients in an individualised way based on what their clients need and are able to do.
Some of the duties and responsibilities of a therapist include:
- Helping clients reflect on issues to make positive changes
It is part of the job description of a therapist to listen and encourage their client. A therapist must be kind, dependable, and empathic.
It is necessary to show these abilities as a specialist to help the client feel more comfortable.
- Liaising with others (if needed) to help any changes happen
Therapists have strong interpersonal skills because this kind of career is about studying and helping individuals. Therefore, it is given that they know how to relate with people and establish rapport with their clients.
They are not judgmental in all the activities that the client must and will undertake. In this line of work, patience is indeed a virtue.
- Referring clients to other therapies
The therapist must collaborate with the client to assist and discover fruitful objectives and intervention procedures. It is their duty, too, to suggest therapies that will help the client recover.
- Setting up a contract to establish what will be covered in the sessions
The therapist will inform the client of the schedule and the therapeutic procedure they will undertake. It is his or her duty to remind the clients of their schedule and the sessions to be covered in a specified period of time.
- Keeping confidential records
To keep the full confidentiality of their client’s information, therapists should be trustworthy. They keep the information log in a safe place, and they ensure the client that everything will be kept private.
Therapists are trained to be versatile individuals because they deal with people who have different personalities. That being said, therapists would and should possess the following skills:
- Interpersonal skills and empathy
Because their career is about studying and helping individuals, they have strong interpersonal skills, which means that they relate well to people coming from different walks of life.
As this field involves talking and listening to clients, therapists must have excellent verbal communication and active listening skills.
They must also have the ability to understand and put their perspective to that of their patients’ experiences to help them understand the cause of their feelings.
- Patience and trustworthiness
The treatments take a lot of time, so therapists will need a lot of patience to see the treatment through to its finality.
They also need to be trustworthy as any information pertaining to the client, especially where treatments are involved, should be kept confidential.
A therapist must have strong critical thinking skills to determine an accurate diagnosis and develop a proper treatment plan.
Therapists help people to explore, understand, and explain the feelings and emotions that are related to their experiences. This allows patients to reflect on what is happening to them and seek alternative ways to heal.
The aim of this career is to help people better understand themselves and the community they belong to so that they can live their lives freely and happily.
Dennis Relojo-Howell is the founder of Psychreg and host of The DRH Show. You can connect with him on Twitter @drelojo_howell.
