What in the world is with the entire alphabet behind our names?!?!

Sometimes I have no idea either and I work in this field.

Today I’m going to discuss the difference between all of these job titles, and letters. I know that I can’t possibly cover all of them or else you’ll be bored out of your mind and never come back, but hopefully, I will cover the main ones you’ll see. I also want to note that most of these are California-specific, acronyms may differ in other states because you know that California always has to be different. 

Marriage and Family Therapist, aka MFT or LMFT. Even though the name says “Marriage and Family”, this really is what most people refer to as a “therapist.” It’s the title that they gave us, it doesn’t mean I have any specialization in marriage or family therapy or that I even offer those services. I know when I was looking for a therapist, I felt frustrated cause I wasn’t married and thought I couldn’t see all these therapists that were “Marriage and Family Therapists.” An MFT is a Master’s level clinician who has studied psychology and counseling psychology. If there is an L at the beginning this means they are Licensed, not all therapists though use L, sometimes it’s just MFT. An intern will have that fact noted somewhere and is required to disclose this as well as provide the information of who is providing clinical supervision to them.* 

Clinician Social Workers, aka CSW or LCSW, are different than Social Workers. Social workers are typically Bachelors Level Social Workers who provide Social Work services. CSW’s or LCSW’s are Masters Level Clinicians who have studied some form or combination of providing Social Work and Counseling. In many agencies or private practices, LCSW’s practice just like MFT’s. Again, the L, means they are licensed, while not everyone uses the L, most do. Like, MFT’s there are also interns in practice who are again required to denote that they are interns along with disclosing this and the information for their clinical supervisor. 

Psychologists are often confused with the people who prescribe medication. Psychologists have various specialties but they are Doctorate level providers who can provide therapy, psychological testing, or some combination of the two. Their doctorate degree emphasizes psychological testing and studies. They are the ones who can do all of those fun evaluations, score, and interpret them for things like Autism, ADHD, Schizophrenia, and many others. 

Psychiatrists are the ones who prescribe medication. Psychiatrists will often provide some combination of therapy and medication management depending on the setting. In some organizations, they only provide medication, while others do both. While as MFT’s and SCW’s and I’m sure psychologists as well, we get some education in school on medications, a Psychiatrists’ education focus’ on this. They are the true experts in psychiatric medications. While your primary doctor may have the knowledge and be comfortable prescribing medications like Zoloft and Prozac, it never hurts to have a specialist in this area to help make sure you are on the right type of medication and dosage.  

I hope that this blog, as well as the previous one, answered your therapy 101 questions. If it didn’t and you have more questions, feel free to contact me at Colleen@scatteredpotential.com, subscribe to my blog or my newsletter by filling out the form below. Follow me on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

As always, this blog is my way of sharing my knowledge with you and if there is a topic you would like to see or would like me to focus on please feel free to let me know. 

Happy Leap Year! 

*In some states they use the LPCC license or something similar to this, California has recently begun to use this as well. It is very similar to the LMFT license.