Mental health education and counseling

In fact, there is basically no difference between psychological counseling and psychotherapy. At least in psychological counseling circles except China, they can generally refer to each other. For example, there are three non-psychiatric clinician associations in American mental health, the American Psychological Association is responsible for clinical psychologists, the American Psychological Counseling Association ACA (yes, it is called "Psychological Counseling Association", but it is not called "Psychological Counseling and Therapy Association" because it automatically covers psychotherapy) is responsible for all psychological counselors, and the American Social Workers Association is responsible for all social workers. That's all. There is no such thing as the American Psychotherapy Association.

The American directors of several friends of mine heard that counselors in China can't do psychotherapy, and they all do it "with a mouthful of coffee on the screen", because this law is really outrageous, basically just like you stipulate that nurses are not allowed to give injections and accountants are not allowed to settle accounts.

So why did China divide psychological counseling and psychotherapy into two parts? It's nothing more than some complicated internal struggles. I'm not internal, so I won't say much ... It's conceivable that certificates are obviously linked to training, distribution, management and employment ... Every step is a business opportunity, hmm.

If you say which certificate you want to take, let's put it this way. In terms of employment in the current legal environment, of course, it is a psychotherapist certificate. In practical terms, there is no difference between the two certificates. The Ministry of Labor doesn't know whether it is to issue more certificates and collect more money, or when the project will be established. No one really knows. The assessment standard of psychological counselors is too water, which leads to the poor level of certified psychological counselors. From the perspective of mental health management, this is really a big trouble.

On the other hand, the so-called psychotherapist audit standard of the Ministry of Health is not much better than that of the Ministry of Labor. Only a medical background is required, but unless it is a mental health medical background, the psychological level of a person with a medical background will not be much higher than that of a street aunt who goes to the Ministry of Labor to take a psychological counselor's certificate. This is like having a biochemistry major, but how professional do you think pure chemistry students are? If you find a physics major, it is estimated that it is almost the same as him, which means that you will become an expert after training, and the essence is the same. Therefore, from the perspective of textual research and practice, neither of these two certificates will work. More reliable is the "registered psychologist" certificate, which belongs to academic institutions. Although the practical requirements are not as good as those in Europe and America, the basic quality is guaranteed as far as possible.

In addition, due to the high requirements of certification and audit, most psychological counselors in Europe and America have the right to diagnose and testify in court, but because they are not doctors, they have no right to prescribe.

As for learning, actually learning psychological counseling means learning psychotherapy, and learning psychotherapy is also learning psychological counseling. If you learn the real thing, there is no difference between the two things (because the technology you learn, whether it is consultation or treatment, is basically foreign, and this thing has never been separated since it was studied abroad. How can we separate when teaching? For example, learning cognitive behavioral therapy, regardless of counseling or treatment, will learn this therapy. No one says that counseling, therapy and learning are different. So you understand?