Melbourne trauma psychotherapy

What is the difference between a psychologist and a social worker?

Both psychologists and social workers can provide Medicare-rebated psychological services to Australians, under the Better Access to Mental Health Care scheme. While social workers and psychologists provide the same support under this scheme (i.e. Focused Psychological Strategies), social work and psychology are two fundamentally different disciplines, and the training that a social worker and a psychologist receive are different.

Psychology has historically attempted to present itself as a scientific discipline sitting alongside medical disciplines. In this way, psychology has attempted to establish that the treatment of psychological distress can be likened to the treatment of physiological disease – for example, a diabetic has insulin, and a person with depression has cognitive-behavioural therapy. Many people have expressed doubt that psychology is a scientific discipline in the way other medical sciences are, and a recent study demonstrated that two-thirds of psychology experiments are not replicable – this means the ‘evidence’ that psychology research produces may not be reliable enough to base theories of human behaviour or mental health treatment, on. However, because of psychology’s significant focus on science, there is a large focus in the education of psychologists on statistics and experimental research methods, and using the results of these experiments to guide treatment of mental health difficulties.

In contrast to this, social work as a discipline is interested in people and their contexts (e.g. families, communities, culture, society, capitalism, climate change, etc.), so social work education is focused on understanding the way in which these kinds of contexts and experiences affect and shape a person’s life and life trajectories. Because the scientific method that is primarily used in research (i.e. positivism) cannot account for the multitude of variables that shape a person’s life, social work has less of a focus on experimental research methods, and more of an educational focus on understanding the complexity of people in their environment and how to support individuals back to holistic health and wellbeing.

As a result of the different philosophies and educational focus in psychology and social work, psychologists and social workers graduate with different sets of knowledge and skills. Both psychologists and social workers have to demonstrate that they have the ability to treat mental health difficulties with the government-mandated Focused Psychological Strategies, to be eligible for a Medicare provider number. However, the way in which a psychologist and a social worker approach mental health difficulties, conceptualise individuals and their environmental contexts, and utilise treatment approaches, will differ based on the different philosophies and education that underpin each discipline.

To read more about the Focused Psychological Strategies that I use, please visit the pages related to EMDR, and schema therapy (a form of cognitive-behavioural therapy that incorporates psychodynamic knowledge). To get a sense of how my social work philosophy and education has influenced my approach to treatment, please visit the pages on relational psychotherapy, and trauma-informed feminist therapy.