Social Workers as Therapists?

You are in Sweden. In the US many social workers ARE licensed to do therapy. Also, the words "licensed" and "qualified" are used interchangeably here. No one in the US is qualified to do therapy without a license, no matter what their degree is. You can have a doctoral degree in psychology here but you won't be qualified to do therapy if you are not licensed. Having a license takes much more than just a degree. After you completed your education you are required to have a few thousands of counseling hours completed under supervision. Then you have to take and pass a licensure exam, in some cases two exams, and only then you get a license.

A good part of a social work training here is very similar to that of psychologists' and MFTs'. Also, EVERY licensed social worker here has a higher education because that's a prerequisite for getting a license. So, when it comes to the level of education and training, here in the US social workers are no different from other therapists, which, by the way, may not be a good thing. Personally, I think, social work and therapy should be separated and the training should differ much more than it does now.

It is very good to have here this excellent summary of the rules in the USA.

I would really advice you to not see a T who´s a social worker as I´ve tried this and my experience is that they can´t be seen as a real T at all. I know it´s a bit different from country to country but if you talk in general of a social worker I would never advice you to see one unless you´re in a desperate need to talk to someone and you can´t wait to look for a T who´s a psychologist.

My experience is that a person who calls him- or herself a therapist based on being a social worker is a kind of cheat. I´ve studied a lot of homepages for T:s who has a degree as a social worker and they almost never present any theories they stick to and they can´t present how they work when you meet with them.

They just list a lot of problems that people can have, anything from suffering from loneliness to having problems with a partner but they can´t show how they actually deal with clients having those kind of issues.

You may benefit from seeing a social worker if you just want to ventilate some problems but they can never give you a sufficient psychological treatment.

I think Europe is different from N. America that way. In the UK I would never dream of seeing a social worker and had such an issue with them it took a while to realise that in N. America they play a different role. Mine is helping heal wounds and change my behaviour. I thank her for my sanity. Don't write a t off without trying them out.

People can have very strong feelings about these things. If something makes you uncomfortable, find one who has the thing that will make it easier is how I see it. Therapists even in the same country don't agree on much besides don't have sex with clients, and they don't all manage to make that one stick either.

This is actually very inaccurate in relation to the US. Psychotherapists have similar training requirements in the US and Europe. However, you can have different advanced (masters, post bachelor) degrees before you go on to receive this training. Given this a comparison really can't be made. I think it is much clearer in Europe because a degree in social work is very straightforward- you are a social/welfare/case worker. In the US, that is the case at te first level- with a bachelors degree. Most people who go on for a masters degree in social work are studying to become licensed therapists. The same goes for a Licensed mental health counselor. Someone who studied psychology in undergrad can work as a couselor, but do not have a license and cannot call themselves a psychotherapist. Only when one goes on to earn a masters degree in psychology, become trained and earns a license can they claim to be a psychotherapist. It is so complicated that it's hard to decipher even as a professional, but the bottom line is, in the US a person with a license that says LCSW, LICSW, LMHC or PsyD are all licensed and qualified to administer therapy. None of this indicates which one will be most effective. That is highly subjective and where the relationship comes into play.

That's exactly what I was trying to say. Here, in the US, we don't have a clear differentiation between psychotherapy and social work like they do in Europe. I actually like the European system more, as ours is too complicated as you said, and this complexity is completely unnecessary. I believe, the main reasons why we like to keep it so complex is 1) financial, because it creates many organizations with cushy jobs, 2) legal, because we want to make sure no one has any reason to sue the practitioners for the lack of training, 3) give the opportunity to have a private business to as many people as possible because neither our states nor our federal government are willing to create jobs for people of our profession. I do believe that social work should be a different profession, more straightforward like a case worker. You are more skilled if your scope of work is more narrow. And, normally, I've noticed that those who choose social work as the major split into two categories. Those who want to do social work in its pure sense don't bother to get a license, and those who obtain licenses mostly focus on psychotherapy.

My fiance was in an anger management group. The therapist had been doing couples counseling for 20 years. Sounded great. Then I went to one of the sessions... Guy was a quack. He was teaching from notes he had written about a book he read. Found out, he'd been practicing under his wife's license for those 20 years...

I also wound up seeing a intern T at my college. She was putting in hours towards her license. We made absolutely no progress. It was so bad that when my previous T found out what was going on, she let me start therapy with her again and told me to leave the intern alone.

I don't care what degree my T has, but she better have her license. Maybe I'm in the same boat with judgements, but Ts w/o their license just don't seem to know what to even do.

Yes this is very true. I wasn't trying to defend anyone who calls themselves a T who is not one. An intern is like anyone in training and you are supposed to be informed of that, just like you should br informed that your doctor is a resident. People should always check the credentials of a T first and if they don't know what the letters after their name means, look it up. You can look up all lisenced professionals on government websites too- from licensed hair stylists to doctors, they should all be in a public and accessible database. You will find people with a bachelors degree in psychology calling themselves life coaches or counselors and in those cases you should be very cautious. Most legit people will put their credentials out there for everyone to see. If not I'd walk away.

I've seen lmft's, lcsw's, phd's, and psyd's. It all depends on the person for me (and their experience/access to quality supervision)...

I know. I was just adding that there are Ts who do call themselves Ts, but they don't actually have a license.

Yes I think one of the biggest problems (in California?) is having an intern T who is just trying to get their 3,000 hours of supervised practice. If it was a medical problem the only place you would see this is in an acute care hospital where at least there is a resident on duty.

You can always try looking Ts up beforehand on the Internet. I did that to my T, and on her Web page she listed her license number. Or when you call, ask for their license number. But I really suggest that you don't write off lcsws, mft, etc. The level of education isn't important. All have a minimum of a masters.

This is the case with every licensed therapist in practice. They do internships - it's the only way they receive their training. A certain amount of hours have to be in direct client contact before they can be licensed. You are supposed to be made aware of this though. You shouldn't be told you're seeing a licensed therapist when they are in fact an intern. I've heard of it happening but sites get in trouble for it.

Ididitmyway,
Why should it matter what OTHER people experience?
I would never see an intern because they lack experience and experience is VERY important to me. It makes no difference to me what a large group of people have experienced or not...I have been in therapy since I was 7 (31 years) seeing only experienced Ts (LCSWs, PsyDs, and PhDs) and all of my experiences have been good. That's enough for me.

My first two T's were LCSW's and I really didn't feel like they had the education/background/experience to help me. My current T is a Ph.D and also supervises college students pursuing psychology careers. She has the experience and knowledge to help me and i feel more confident with her educational background.

I will say, though, that even if my previous two T's were Ph.D's, I still probably would not have gotten much out of the therapy I did with them. Their personalities were not a good fit for me. My current T is just overall a great fit for my personality.

My extremely limited experience was that it's really important to click with someone and to make sure you are on the same page. I saw an expensive T (who was a social worker) and it was useless. I signed up for the free counseling at my uni and had someone really help me. So I guess in my experience, the degree mattered less than the fact that the patient and T are both working towards a common goal and understand what that is.

I see a T that is MSW and it works for me.

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

This was my experience too.

Maybe this will help

Psych Central - Distinctions Between Therapist Degrees

The therapist who damaged me so badly had probably 30 years of experience. (Maybe he was jaded?) The therapist who helped me so so so much had maybe 2 years of experience. Experience means NOTHING to me. But I respect that some people think it is a good thing.

for me experience is very important. I don't mean they have to be practicing for X amount of years or even have a certain degree. It is about having experiences outside of the classroom. I would probably not go to an intern. I have some very complex issues and need somebody I feel confident can help me weed through and figure out the complexities...

I am closing this thread while the team discusses it.