What is the difference between a psychologist and a psychotherapist?

Please note: our blog posts are solely informational and are not meant to replace individualized therapeutic advice or healthcare.

Psychologists and psychotherapists have different educational backgrounds and requirements for their certifications. 

Both psychologists and psychotherapists are covered under most extended health benefits for mental health services.

It does warrant a quick chat with your insurance company to ensure that whoever you choose to see will be covered and how much of their fees your plan will cover.

Both psychologists and psychotherapists have governing colleges that serve to protect the public.

Anyone offering psychological services or psychotherapy must be registered with a college (like the College of Registered Psychotherapists of Ontario or the College of Psychologists of Ontario), and they will be searchable on their databases. These colleges ensure that practitioners are properly educated, have completed proper supervision, engage in continuing education and follow strict codes of ethics and practice guidelines. Their role is to protect clients by ensuring that practitioners are competent and held accountable.

Psychologists

Psychologists have a PhD in psychology and are able to diagnose and treat the mental health disorders.

Assessments for ADHD, autism spectrum disorder and the like are most often done by a psychologist, or sometimes psychiatrist. 

Psychologists also have a clinical side to their roles, providing treatment or therapy for many of the mental health concerns that they diagnose. Each psychologist has their own focus or niche. Some specialize in only providing assessments and diagnosis while others prefer to only provide treatment and therapy. While psychologists can diagnose, some choose not to, and you definitely don’t need a diagnosis to seek support. Figuring out what you need and then asking each practitioner about their practice is necessary when finding the right fit.  

While psychologists can be employed by agencies or health teams covering the cost of their fees through OHIP, if they operate in a private practice then their fees have to be covered by the clients themselves. Psychologists do tend to charge hire rates for their services than psychotherapists because of their specialized skills and experience. A typical fee for an hour of therapy with a psychologist is around $200-250 while with a psychotherapist it can be about $130-175 per hour. 

Psychotherapists

Psychotherapists are specialists in therapy.

They spend their entire Masters degrees on learning, developing and practicing their therapeutic skills in different modalities like cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), emotion focused therapy (EFT), dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT), narrative therapy, mindfulness, somatic therapy and more. While most psychotherapists start out with a generalized and eclectic approach to working with clients, with time they tend to focus on a particular modality or niche population. This could be anything from CBT for eating disorders to emotion focused therapy for anger management, and millions of specialities in between. 

If you’re unsure about what modality is best for you, speaking with a therapist during a consultation appointment would offer you some insight into how they would approach your unique situation. You don’t have to be an expert in these things (or even know much about them), that’s the therapist's role. If they don’t feel like their skills would apply to your situation, then they will tell you so and encourage you to find a better fit.  

Fees and the ability to diagnose are the major differences between these two professions. Many other nuanced differences exist, but those are the key takeaways for folks wanting to understand a simplified comparison of the practitioners.

If you are considering therapy but still aren’t sure if a psychologist or psychotherapist is the right fit for you, you can contact us with questions or book a FREE consultation.  We’ll get to know you and your needs in therapy and then pair you with the right therapist on our team.