I was away over the past week and was sent this photo of a short article I recently wrote for Hamilton's Mountain News. The article will be of interest for Hamiltonian's especially because I include the details for free group psychotherapy with Mood Menders.
I wrote the article to address an issue that I get asked a lot: what are my options to help with my mental health? I'm a big believer in therapy and living well. That usually is where I start with my recommendations. This does not mean I disagree with medication, in fact medication can create a window of opportunity to do some good work in therapy. If you read the article, you'll see that Canadian's (according to Statistics Canada) expressed that counselling or psychotherapy was the most needed however, was the need most not met.
Enjoying the spring weather,
Tim.
Sunday, April 27, 2014
Friday, April 11, 2014
What exactly is a social worker, are they like psychologists, or counsellors?
Think of a therapist (a psychotherapist, clinical social worker, psychologist, whoever you associate with the term). Just notice what comes up for you. For some people, images of the classic psychoanalysis situation arises: one person laying on a couch with another sitting upright in an armchair with clipboard in hand, scribbling/jotting away... what are they writing anyway!?
Go ahead and google differences between social workers and psychologists, you'll find a lot of comparisons and a surprisingly large amount of misinformation (it doesn't help that there are different types of social workers and psychologists). Calling oneself a social worker or psychologist is a special thing, only certain people with specific credentials are allowed to do so as these professions (and titles) are regulated.
In my search around the web, I found a surprisingly good website by Ontario's Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care that explains the "types of mental health services in Ontario." However, even this site does not clearly spell out who is who when it comes to psychologist, social worker, and counsellor.
So, let's pick it apart: to put it simply, social workers are not psychologists but it can be confusing because often times it looks like they do the same thing. Social workers like myself may consider themselves "clinical social workers" and practice the act of psychotherapy (I am of course talking about master's degree level social workers — sometimes referred to LCSW's/Licensed Clinical Social Workers in the United States). This clinical social work role could mean meeting with individuals, couples, families, or groups to offer therapy. The types of therapy offered by social workers are largely psychotherapeutic, psychoeducation, and skills training. These therapies could cover a variety of issues from anger, infidelity, family issues, grief, illness, life changing events, to serious mental health issues. Furthermore, many of these therapies are based on psychological theories (yep, confusing... social workers use psychological theories but more about that later). These many roles and responsibilities of social workers stands in stark contrast to many "comparison" websites claiming that social workers only offer case management, social services, and referrals to psychologists for mental health related issues. In fact, social workers provide more mental health services than all of the helping professions combined.
Social workers in many places around the world (in Canada too) diagnose based on the DSM 5 (one of the widely recognized diagnostic criteria/classification of mental health disorder manuals). This again demonstrates the place of social work in the assessment and treatment of serious or persistent mental health problems. In Ontario, social workers do not diagnose based on syndromal symptoms or disorders. Instead, we use assessment and diagnostic tools to create formulations and treatment plans for our clients. We create a non-pathologizing 'social work diagnoses.'
So if social workers are practically everywhere, doing most of the work with the public, why don't we hear more about them!? Well, social workers use psychological, sociological, and criminological theories to inform their practice but social work as a discipline has few of it's own theories (a strengths based approach is the only product of social work I can think of!?). Psychology has a large research (experimental) base, whereas social work is largely an applied discipline. This distinction could be important in explaining social works lack of publicity. For psychologists there are many universities with grant funding and experimental research programs, not so much for social workers. Instead, we find graduate level (master's degree) social work education for the most part minimally focusing on research methods and data analysis and instead schools of social work offer many practical skills to get social work students out in the field, helping people. This is not entirely unlike the discipline of clinical or counselling psychology who also focus on more practical psychotherapeutic skills and may de-emphasize research skills. Rightfully so, right? Well, more on that in another post.
Ah yes, clients — not patients. Historically (and still today), social work has led helping professions in advocating for the importance of empathic, warm, collaborative, and supportive working relationships. We do not view clients in a pathologizing way. We accept the client's description of their pain/problems. In a social worker's relationship with the clients we serve, social workers seek to share power and build upon client strengths. We do this thing called anti-oppressive practice, where social workers promote a power balance by speaking in non-pathologizing terms, insuring clients not only understand but are involved in making treatment decisions, and to develop/promote the clients own ideas about their involvement in treatment.
Clearly, there is something unique and special about social work. Why else would I bet my career on it?
Tim.
![]() |
Betty Draper on the couch giving a look to her therapist. |
Go ahead and google differences between social workers and psychologists, you'll find a lot of comparisons and a surprisingly large amount of misinformation (it doesn't help that there are different types of social workers and psychologists). Calling oneself a social worker or psychologist is a special thing, only certain people with specific credentials are allowed to do so as these professions (and titles) are regulated.
In my search around the web, I found a surprisingly good website by Ontario's Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care that explains the "types of mental health services in Ontario." However, even this site does not clearly spell out who is who when it comes to psychologist, social worker, and counsellor.
So, let's pick it apart: to put it simply, social workers are not psychologists but it can be confusing because often times it looks like they do the same thing. Social workers like myself may consider themselves "clinical social workers" and practice the act of psychotherapy (I am of course talking about master's degree level social workers — sometimes referred to LCSW's/Licensed Clinical Social Workers in the United States). This clinical social work role could mean meeting with individuals, couples, families, or groups to offer therapy. The types of therapy offered by social workers are largely psychotherapeutic, psychoeducation, and skills training. These therapies could cover a variety of issues from anger, infidelity, family issues, grief, illness, life changing events, to serious mental health issues. Furthermore, many of these therapies are based on psychological theories (yep, confusing... social workers use psychological theories but more about that later). These many roles and responsibilities of social workers stands in stark contrast to many "comparison" websites claiming that social workers only offer case management, social services, and referrals to psychologists for mental health related issues. In fact, social workers provide more mental health services than all of the helping professions combined.
Social workers in many places around the world (in Canada too) diagnose based on the DSM 5 (one of the widely recognized diagnostic criteria/classification of mental health disorder manuals). This again demonstrates the place of social work in the assessment and treatment of serious or persistent mental health problems. In Ontario, social workers do not diagnose based on syndromal symptoms or disorders. Instead, we use assessment and diagnostic tools to create formulations and treatment plans for our clients. We create a non-pathologizing 'social work diagnoses.'
So if social workers are practically everywhere, doing most of the work with the public, why don't we hear more about them!? Well, social workers use psychological, sociological, and criminological theories to inform their practice but social work as a discipline has few of it's own theories (a strengths based approach is the only product of social work I can think of!?). Psychology has a large research (experimental) base, whereas social work is largely an applied discipline. This distinction could be important in explaining social works lack of publicity. For psychologists there are many universities with grant funding and experimental research programs, not so much for social workers. Instead, we find graduate level (master's degree) social work education for the most part minimally focusing on research methods and data analysis and instead schools of social work offer many practical skills to get social work students out in the field, helping people. This is not entirely unlike the discipline of clinical or counselling psychology who also focus on more practical psychotherapeutic skills and may de-emphasize research skills. Rightfully so, right? Well, more on that in another post.
Ah yes, clients — not patients. Historically (and still today), social work has led helping professions in advocating for the importance of empathic, warm, collaborative, and supportive working relationships. We do not view clients in a pathologizing way. We accept the client's description of their pain/problems. In a social worker's relationship with the clients we serve, social workers seek to share power and build upon client strengths. We do this thing called anti-oppressive practice, where social workers promote a power balance by speaking in non-pathologizing terms, insuring clients not only understand but are involved in making treatment decisions, and to develop/promote the clients own ideas about their involvement in treatment.
Clearly, there is something unique and special about social work. Why else would I bet my career on it?
Tim.
Thursday, April 10, 2014
Imagine you could attend your own funeral.
This is intense. I use this example a lot when I give trainings on psychotherapy. I tend not to use an evocative exercise like "attending your own funeral" in session with clients because they have their own emotional content that is present in sessions. Often times, I just find I do not need to go into an activity like this. So instead, I use it when I give trainings to professionals because we use show up with that learning/problem solving mode of mind and exercises like this can get us out of that mode of mind for a short time and breathe some compassion and attuned awareness into the room. In my experience (and there is some good data to back this) that experiential learning is valuable and learners come away with more when they do the work in the room.
So, I was surprised to see this video a few mornings ago while I was enjoying my morning tea. It's very moving and I wish to share it here. If you do not speak French, please move your mouse inside the video and select the 'CC' button in the bottom right of the video, it stands for 'Closed Captioning' and allows you to have English.
If you could attend your own funeral and actually listen in.. what would you hope to hear be said about you? Go gently with this question, it might give you a chance to really connect with what and who matters most to you.
I'd want to hear "Tim really loved and care for me." :)
Tim.
So, I was surprised to see this video a few mornings ago while I was enjoying my morning tea. It's very moving and I wish to share it here. If you do not speak French, please move your mouse inside the video and select the 'CC' button in the bottom right of the video, it stands for 'Closed Captioning' and allows you to have English.
If you could attend your own funeral and actually listen in.. what would you hope to hear be said about you? Go gently with this question, it might give you a chance to really connect with what and who matters most to you.
I'd want to hear "Tim really loved and care for me." :)
Tim.
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