Counsellor, Therapist, Psychologist, Psychiatrist - What’s the Difference?
If you find the many different professional titles within mental health to be confusing, be assured that the nuances are sometimes unclear even for someone in the industry. For the uninitiated, these titles are not easily delineated. In this article, I aim to explain the differences between these titles and how a patient might choose who to work with.
Free Mental Health Resources in Australia
If you are in Australia and looking to better understand / improve your mental health, there are a number of free “first-stop” resources available for a diverse range of issues and peoples. Below is a list of common resources, many of which offer shorter-term or anonymous support
Maybe You Should Talk to Someone (Gottlieb, 2019)
Curious what therapy is like and if it may help you? Maybe You Should Talk to Someone is a therapist’s recounting of her own and several of her patients experiences in therapy.
Western Therapy & Eastern Minds
Whether ‘Western’ therapy adequately serves non-Western individuals is a major topic within the mental health field. There is considerable research that shows that mental health care is more effective when it acknowledges and adapts based on clients’ cultural background.
ADHD 2.0 (Hallowell & Ratey, 2021)
Whether you are newly diagnosed or have been struggling with ADHD for years, the book ADHD 2.0 may be a helpful step to understand what ADHD is and how you might make your relationship with it more positive.
Asian-Australian Therapist Directory
If you are looking for an Asian-Australian therapist, Shapes and Sounds has a directory of Asian-Australian therapists that are available both in-person and online. Daniel is listed here as well.
Racial Blindness in Mental Health (Stoumpos et al., 2026)
Mental health practitioners’ failure to acknowledge the effects of race or ethnicity on individuals’ experience may hinder the effectiveness of mental health care. This paper, which Daniel contributed to, explores these attitudes among Australian mental health practitioners - highlighting the need for improved professional training to better serve culturally diverse communities in Australia.
What Type of Therapy is Right For You?
As a therapist with a person-centred foundation (but also integrates other approaches), I would risk a cliche by suggesting that clients follow their intuition as to which type of therapy or which therapist they’d like to try working with. In practice, every therapist works quite differently, even if they advertise themselves as practising the same type of therapy. And some research suggests that how comfortable you feel with your therapist is a strong driver of ‘success’ in therapy.