Which talking therapist is right for you: Counsellor, psychotherapist, clinical psychologist?
- Dr. Jenny Turner
- Jan 16
- 12 min read
Updated: Jan 24
I recently wrote on Substack about how hard it can be to get support for our mental health within the NHS, and how hard it can feel to even begin to sift though the overwhelming options for talking therapists in private practice.
Today I’m building on that previous Substack post, to offer a bit of an insight into three of the common options we tend to come across, when we are looking for a therapist:
A psychologist, a counsellor and a psychotherapist.
When I began to think about writing this piece, I quickly realised that I can explain a bit about what I offer as a psychologist ... But even with my training and experience I still find hard to really know the difference between various types of therapist - it is genuinely this confusing and overwhelming (you’re definitely not imagining it)!
So, to do this, I’ve enlisted the help of three of my colleagues from across the UK- Two of whom are both ‘counsellor psychotherapists’ - Claire Judd, based in Killinghall, North Yorkshire; Sarah Edge, based in Sale, Manchester; and Laura Shtaingos who is a qualified counsellor, based in Kent.
I know Claire, Laura and Sarah through a peer supervision group, where we meet once a month, online - in this supervision group, we learn from each other, and support each other with the work we do. Despite our very different trainings, and experience, we all work as talking therapists, predominately with Mums, many of whom are in the early days of parenting.
We all specialise in ‘matrescence’ (the transition from ‘before being a mum’ to ‘becoming a mum’), and all that comes along with that - both birth trauma, breastfeeding trauma, adapting to new identities and new caring roles, grieving old identities and lives, as well as grieving the loss of the imagined ‘perfect’ experience of becoming a parent, and the imagined ‘perfect child’ (that so many of unconsciously believed we would be gifted by the universe, before we met our very much 'real-life' & imperfect-like-all-humans-are-child ).
So, without further adieu, first up, here is Sarah, to answer the question: What is a counsellor psychotherapist?
What is a Counsellor Psychotherapist?
Hi, I’m Sarah Edge and I am Counsellor Psychotherapist supporting mothers and birthing people. I use the terms ‘therapist’, ‘counsellor’ and ‘psychotherapist’ interchangeably, but probably settle mostly on ‘psychotherapist’.
I have an undergraduate degree (with honours), and postgraduate certificate also in Psychology, completed with the view to teach (which I did for a while- I taught A-level Psychology). During my mid-twenties, I decided I wanted to train as a counsellor and completed a diploma in integrative psychotherapeutic counselling (my qualifying qualification), followed by a postgraduate certificate in counselling and psychotherapy. I have recently completed a masters degree in Advanced Counselling Psychotherapy, and my master’s thesis explored the experience of psychological distress in the perinatal period and type of support women value in the perinatal period.
Counsellor Psychotherapists provide hundreds of hours of therapy and relational work to qualify as a counsellor and it is a significant undertaking in terms of academic work, supervision, skills practice and voluntary hours on placement.
I have been a qualified counsellor psychotherapist for the past fourteen years, and my experience includes working therapeutically with women who have experienced domestic violence (many of whom were mothers), children and their families. I have worked for both the NSPCC and Place2Be, most recently managing two school-based therapy projects in city centre Manchester. My background is working with women and children who have experienced significant trauma. I have been exclusively working in the field of perinatal mental health and wellbeing for the past four years. It was the birth of my own children that inspired me to develop the private therapy practice I would have valued during pregnancy and postpartum.
I am an accredited member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP). Accreditation is achieved via thorough assessment and following at least 450 post qualifying hours providing therapy. Whilst counselling and psychotherapy are not currently regulated professions or protected titles, the BACP are perhaps considered the main governing body and are taking steps to ensure ethical practice and safety for clients working with therapists.
Psychotherapy, especially psychodynamic therapies, are traditionally longer-term therapies, taking place usually weekly or fortnightly. I aim to provide a flexible approach to therapy, especially given the client group I work with, and so work short and long term, either weekly, fortnightly, monthly, ad- hoc or one off, in line with the need, budget and availability of the client. My sessions are priced from £69- £99 per session.
Thank you Sarah!
Now, here is Claire Judd, to describe her own similar qualifications and experience as an Integrative Relational Counsellor and Psychotherapist:
What is an integrative Relational Counsellor and Psychotherapist?
“Officially I am a Counsellor and Psychotherapist - I’m so pleased that Jenny is writing this series as these titles are so confusing, both for me - someone who is qualified in this field - and for clients trying to work out who and what they might need.
In the therapy world the difference between counsellor and psychotherapist is hotly debated (I would never recommend anyone open it up for debate in a facebook group of therapists!). My qualifications suggest I’m a bit of both, although I actually feel we very much do the same job, and that a lot of how we work comes down to our own experiences of therapy and our continued professional development, as it does our initial qualification.
My training started many years ago with Levels 1 - 3 in counselling skills but my final qualification was a 2 year postgraduate course. My tutors had a mix of qualifications from cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) to Psychodynamic therapy. To qualify, I had to do at least 450 hours of tutor contact time and 200 hours of supervised client hours and 20 hours of personal therapy. In reality I did 350 client hours and 30 hours of personal therapy (on top of the personal therapy I had already engaged in prior to doing the course). A crucial part of the course, which fed into what I took to personal therapy, was a process group with other students on the course, which had a focus on the relational dynamics between all the group participants.
I’m qualified in integrative and relational work. The first part ‘integrative’ is the easy part to explain, it means I use a mixture of therapy types in my work. For me that includes:
A person centred approach (which focuses on clients subjective experiences, and theorises that: People are experts in their own lives; and we all move towards growth, if the conditions we are living in are ‘right’ and ‘healthy’ for us.
Compassion focused therapy (which focuses on our emotional regulation systems, neuroscience and mindfulness)
Some psychodynamic aspects (i.e. considering unconscious processes as well as conscious thoughts and processes, for example - attachment patterns, and the dynamics of our relationship, between myself and my clients, in the therapy room)
The relational part in my work is centred around the ‘here and now’ which means that whatever happens between me and a client in the therapy room, or in communication between sessions, is an indicator of my client’s relationship with others - My role is therefore to bring this into my clients awareness, and use it as an opportunity to explore how they relate to others further.
There’s a lot more to say on this, for instance a lot of my use of the psychodynamic aspects come from my previous psychology degree and my training and role as a psychology teacher as well as my therapy qualification.
My own personal postnatal therapy also means I draw on my own experiences of difficulties in that time and that I also have a keen awareness of systemic issues that contribute to new mums struggling - It is never my client who needs fixing, it’s the systems & environments within which they live.
I am also a member of the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) which is accredited by the Professional Standards Agency.
I specialise in postnatal therapy, so I try to target my ongoing continued professional development (CPD) to learning which is specific to this client group. For example some specific topics I have covered in my ongoing CPD, either through courses or reading include:
Strategies for working with anxiety
Birth Trauma and health anxiety
Women, anger and rage
Perinatal mental health
Recognising and supporting postnatal psychosis
Nervous system regulation
Supporting those having children after loss
Domestic abuse in pregnancy and postpartum
I tend to offer 50 minute sessions on a weekly basis. There is no set number of sessions that clients come to me for as it’s very much dependent on circumstances and what that individual would like to achieve. The majority of clients have between 12 - 20 sessions, however I have a number of clients who have worked with me for more than 6 months, others who have been for around 20 sessions and then drop in for ‘top ups’, and others who come for 3 - 6 sessions and that’s all they need right now (this latter format is often for ‘birth reflection’ sessions).
Thank you Claire!
And now, here is Laura Shtaingos to answer the question: What is a counsellor?
What is a counsellor?
My own qualification is a Diploma in Integrative Counselling which followed on from a Certificate in Counselling Skills and a qualification as a Breastfeeding Counsellor a few years earlier.
When I started counselling training I had three children under five years old and my main ambition was to do whatever training was required to enable me to work with the parents I was seeing through breastfeeding work longer term.
My Counselling Diploma involved 582 hours of study of counselling theory and reflective practice at postgraduate level, 100 hours of supervised practice with clients and 60 hours of personal therapy.
Pursuing a counselling qualification rather than a clinical psychology qualification was partly pragmatic (3 young kids do not afford a whole lot of spare time!). But having an academic background (my undergraduate degree was in Economics and Management at Oxford University), I was also keen to ensure my training was less academic and more about the practice of sitting with feelings. I was more interested in the doing than the theory - and a huge amount of what I learned during these three years was personal and about ways of being, as well as about exploring psychological theories.
As a counsellor, I work in an integrative way, using concepts from cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), humanistic, and psychodynamic ways of thinking. I usually start with the difficulties my client is experiencing in the present - often the reason they come to therapy. There may be some emotional regulation skills that are useful to learn or theories about relational dynamics that we can use together to make sense of things. Often we will speak about the cultural experience of being a mother in our society, what ‘shoulds’ we might have picked up from the world around us. Especially in parenthood, our past experiences in our family of origin are likely to be a big influence over how we behave in the present too. Developing a shared understanding of how all these things link together is often critical for clients to be able to make changes.
I am flexible in the length of time I work with clients and often this develops as therapy progresses. Occasionally I work with clients for only 6-8 weeks, but more commonly I work with people over months and years, walking beside them on the winding and unpredictable path of parenthood.
Thank you Laura!
Finally, here is a brief description from me about what training is required to be a clinical psychologist:
I began my undergraduate training with a degree in Neuroscience. I then gained a second undergraduate degree in Psychology, for which I completed an additional Honours year. To become a clinical psychologist you only need one undergraduate degree in a related field (i.e. most commonly psychology) - the fact that I have two is just a bonus!
I went onto work as a research assistant for The National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health, which was commissioned by the National Institute for Health & Clinical Excellence (NICE) to develop and write guidelines for the treatment of mental health disorders - While there, I worked on the guidelines for ADHD, Antenatal and Postnatal Mental Health and Bipolar Disorder.
During this time, I also gained experience as an assistant psychologist within a North London mental health NHS trust - For approximately one year, I worked there on an honorary contract, for one afternoon per week, meeting with clients who were experiencing mild-moderate anxiety and/or depression, and I assisted them with some CBT-based guided self-help material, provided by the trust.
I also gained additional experience in working with people, in a therapeutic capacity, by volunteering with the charity Samaritans, also for a year or so.
I then applied to do my clinical psychology doctoral training, which I completed from 2007 - 2010 - This training has a competitive applications process, and involves completing a full-time three-year doctoral-level degree with academic, clinical and research components.
Throughout the three years, we also worked for 3 days per week within the NHS, gaining experience in suporting clients in a range of mental health services, under the professional title of 'trainee clinical psychologist'. We were trained in various therapeutic models including CBT, mindfulness, systemic family therapy approaches, psychodynamic & psychoanalytic models, and community-based approaches.
As a trainee clinical psychologist I gained experience in working with adults, children, adolescents, and older adults, across a wide range of locations and settings - including inpatient and outpatient settings. I gained experience in working with individuals, whole families, and parents. I also gained experience in working with people with neurodivergent profiles, such as ADHD, Autism, developmental delay and dementia, as well as various physical health concerns.
During my training, I discovered my natural ability & passion for working with families, and so went on to work as a qualified doctor of clinical psychology in Child & Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) and paediatric services across Kent and London, from 2010 - 2019.
Once qualified, clinical psychologist is a protected title in the UK, and to use this title, all clinical psychologists need to be registered with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) and need to continue with ongoing career development, including having regular supervision with a more highly qualified HCPC-registered psychologist & regular further training.
In 2019 I left the NHS and I set up my private practice - Mind Body Soul Psychology. I now specilise in supporting people who have caring roles, most commonly mothers, with the various emotional challenges commonly associated with caring and life. I am particualrly interested in how we take care of ourselves, and how we navigate through the emotional landscapes of big, tumultuous changes in our lives as women - such as matrescence, birth & breastfeeding trauma, and perimenopause - all while caring for our children, and often while also offering care to several other significant other people in our lives too.
Like the other professionals you've heard from above, I now work integratively, and relationally, and I draw on many theories that help us to understand how we relate to each other and what gets in the way - for example, shame-resilence theory from Brené Brown, systemic family therapies, attachment theories, as well as theories about our nervous systems are wired for both caring and receiving care. I also lean heavily on compassion-focussed approaches in all of my work with clients. I offer both short-term & long-term work with clients, depending on their needs, and on our understanding of what will be most useful for them.
In summary:
As you can see, although we work similarly now, with a similar client group and using similar models of therapeutic support, we all differ in our training, our professional registrations, our past clinical experience, and how much we charge for our services.
Here is a table with the key features of the above discussion, pulled out, side-by-side:
So what does all this mean for you, when looking for a therapist?
It is important you are aware that several 'talking therapists' may have very different backgrounds & experience - This blog highlights the importance of you doing your own research into the therapists you are considering working with.
It is important to consider the post-graduate training and special interest development of any therapists you are considering working with, and find one whose current focus is aligned well with your needs. For example, although I have experience in the past of working directly with children, this is not my focus now, and so there will absolutely better therapists out there for you, than me, if you need this particular service.
It is important to consider your budget when looking for a therapist - there is a huge range of fees charged out there, for talking therapy, so choosing the price-range that will work for you is key, and should very possible - As this blog post shows, there is absolutely good therapy available, for a wide range of budgets.
It is important to check the professional registrations of all therapists you are considering. All of the therapists described above DO have credible professional registration, but did you know: It is actually legal for anyone in this country to create a snazzy website and call themselves a 'therapist', a 'counsellor', 'psychotherapist' or even a 'psychologist' - If your therapist has evidence of a current professional registration (with a recognised & respected regulatory body), this is a level for protection for you as a consumer of therapy - to ensure that your therapist does indeed have the training and expertise they are claiming to have, and to ensure you have somewhere to report your concerns to, if you ever feel unsafe or harmed in the course of working with a talking therapist.
You can find out more about what each of these professionals offers, & the way they work, here:
Sarah Edge:
Claire Judd:
Laura Shtaingos:
Dr Jenny Turner
Thank you for reading.
I am Dr. Jenny Turner, Clinical Psychologist & founder of Mind Body Soul Psychology - a private psychology practice based in Yorkshire, UK, & working with women & mothers from all over the UK, online.
*NB. This information pertains to the UK, where I live and work, and is accurate, to the best of my knowledge, at the time of writing, in January 2025. Please note that the organisations regulating therapists in this country may change over time - please ensure you are gaining up-to-date information regarding accrediting organisations, in your search for a therapist.
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