Psychologists and psychotherapists’ practices of psychotherapy in Quebec: What differences exist?

Abstract

The landscape of psychotherapy continues to change with the accreditation of other mental health professionals-like social workers and clinical counsellors-as psychotherapy practitioners. Data about potential similarities and differences between psychologists and psychotherapists may provide the field with a more thorough understanding of diverse aspects of psychotherapeutic practices, practitioner characteristics, and clinical training backgrounds. We employed an online survey to obtain information on the psychotherapy practices of psychologists and psychotherapists working in the private sector in Quebec as nearly half of Canadian licensed psychologists practice in Quebec. All 664 participants were licensed by the Ordre des Psychologues du Québec (OPQ). There were significant differences between psychologists and psychotherapists. Although they both provide psychotherapy services they present with differences in: education levels, presenting problems of their clients, referrals sources, theoretical orientation, assessment and diagnostic procedures, duration of their interventions, collaboration with other health professionals, as well as fees charged for their services. These differences may relate to variances in training and/or professional development requirements for each group. Overall, the results suggest that psychologists and psychotherapists in the private sector take different approaches to the practice of psychotherapy in Quebec.

Barriers to Care among High Emergency Department Users with Mental Disorders – A Mixed Methods Study

“…Number of GP consultations included consultations with family doctors and walk-ins. Most psychologists in Quebec work in private practice, so psychosocial services are mostly provided by community healthcare centers [30,31]. Specialized outpatient care other than with psychiatrists included addiction treatment centers and hospital psychosocial resources.…”

The practice of psychotherapy in Quebec: What have we learned from clinicians, and where should we take it from here.

“…Researchers have examined it from every angle and have demonstrated that it has positive effects on mental health, and can reduce the economic burden of mental illness (American Psychological Association, 2013; Australian Psychological Society, 2010; Fansi, Jehanno, Lapalme, Drapeau, & Bouchard, 2016; Hunsley, Elliott, & Therrien, 2014; Vasiliadis, Dezetter, Latimer, Drapeau, & Lesage, 2017), while many psychologists and other clinicians have made it the core of their clinical practice (Hunsley, Ronson, & Cohen, 2013; Ionita & Fitzpatrick, 2014). The November 2018 issue of Canadian Psychology , which was entirely dedicated to psychotherapy, illustrates the richness of the literature on psychotherapy, with papers that discuss such critical issues as the need for publicly funded psychotherapy and for greater access to psychotherapy, including in remote areas, the importance of self-care and of well-being amongst therapists, change and improvement with psychotherapy, the economic implications of offering therapy, the legal and ethical considerations related to treating specific populations, differences between various groups of practitioners, or the strengths and weaknesses of the methods used to examine the efficacy of therapy (Gajic-Veljanoski et al, 2018; Jimenez-Arista, Tracey, & Levy, 2018; Kalegeropoulos, Roquet, Sztopa, Bradley, & Drapeau, 2018; Laverdière, Kealy, Ogrodniczuk, & Morin, 2018; Lints-Martindal, Carlson, Goodwin, & Thompson, 2018; Maranzan et al, 2018; Mathews, 2018; McPhail, Stephens, & Heasman, 2018; Sanders & Hunsley, 2018; Tasca, Town, Abbass, & Clark, 2018). More importantly perhaps, psychotherapy has also recently received attention from policymakers.…”