Counseling for Chronic Headaches
Types of Therapists Who Treat Those with Chronic Pain
There are different types of therapists who treat people with chronic headaches. Counseling is a good idea if your head pain is affecting your emotional life.
Chronic conditions can cause emotional problems. Dealing with headaches and migraines means coping with inconvenience, chronic pain, and misunderstanding from others. This can wear on a patient's emotional wellbeing. Even medications for pain can contribute to depression and anxiety.
To deal with such issues, it's sometimes necessary to meet with a psychological therapist. Although each type is beneficial, not all therapists are designed for the same kind of treatment. The more education a therapist has (example: a psychiatrist), the more likely they deal with the scientific side of therapy, such as administering medication. Social workers, on the contrary, deal with therapy as well as community outreach and aid. The following therapists counsel and treat people with chronic headaches and migraines:
Psychiatrists
Psychiatrists are MDs, or medical doctors. Having gone through medical school, clinical rotation, and residency, these professionals have the most amount of medical education. Psychiatrists focus on the medical side of emotional health, and currently concentrate on medication dispension and monitoring.
Psychiatrists will know the most about the medical and physiological side of depression and anxiety. Unless the case is very serious, a psychiatrist might not be the initial therapist you work with.
Psychologists
Psychologists are highly trained in emotional counseling, psychological problem-solving, and rehabilitation. Their education focuses on clinical therapy, although they do have knowledge about the medical side of depression.
Psychologists have doctoral degrees in psychology, so although they are highly qualified to counsel patients, they are not licensed (like psychiatrists) to dispense medicine. A psychologist can determine if a patient might benefit from medication, and then he or she can refer the patient to a psychiatrist for this purpose.
Counselors and Social Workers
Counselors are trained in psychology and therapy practices. They often work for psychiatrists or at clinical practices. Counselors often have excellent resources at their fingertips, including support group contacts, community outreach programs, and headache society information.
Social workers are similar to counselors in that they work to provide counseling, community outreach, and social welfare programs to clients.
Both counselors and social workers usually have a master's degree level of education. They do not dispense medication, but instead refer patients to psychiatrists for medicinal analysis.
*****For more information on headaches and migraines, read Headache Types and Causes, Tension Headache Overview, Migraine Overview, Migraines: Causes and Triggers, Migraine Signs and Symptoms, Migraine Diagnosis and Treatment, and Alternative Migraine Therapies.
******For related neurological information, check out the Neurological ARTICLE INDEX and Blog.
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