Psychologist, Psychotherapist, or Counsellor? What’s the Difference?

If you’ve ever tried to book therapy and found yourself staring at a list of credentials you don’t fully understand — RP, RSW, C.Psych, RCC — you’re not alone. The mental health field uses terminology that isn’t well explained to the people who need to navigate it, and the distinctions between titles matter in ways that are worth understanding before you book.

This post breaks down the differences plainly — what each professional is trained to do, how they’re regulated, and how to think about which kind of support is most suited to what you’re looking for.

The Short Version

A psychologist is a doctoral-level professional trained in assessment, diagnosis, and treatment. A registered psychotherapist is a regulated mental health professional specifically trained in psychotherapy — the talk-based process of working through psychological difficulty. A counsellor is a broader term that can mean many things and, in Ontario, isn’t regulated in the same way.

Each has a distinct scope and a distinct way of approaching the person in front of them. Understanding those differences helps you make a more informed decision about the kind of support that actually fits your situation.

Psychologists

In Ontario, a psychologist holds a doctoral degree — either a PhD or a PsyD — in psychology, and is regulated by the College of Psychologists of Ontario. This is a significant credential that involves extensive academic training, supervised clinical hours, and ongoing professional accountability.

Psychologists are trained in psychological assessment and diagnosis — the formal process of evaluating a person’s presentation against established diagnostic criteria and producing a clinical diagnosis. This is work that registered psychotherapists are not trained or authorized to do, and it’s a meaningful distinction in specific contexts: formal assessments for ADHD, learning disabilities, autism, psychological injury in legal proceedings, or certain workplace accommodation processes typically require a psychologist.

Psychologists also provide psychotherapy — so the distinction isn’t that psychologists don’t do therapy and psychotherapists don’t do anything else. The distinction is in training emphasis and in the specific capacities around assessment and diagnosis that only psychologists hold.

Daniel Burgoyne, Registered Psychotherapist at Reset Counselling & Psychotherapy, names a meaningful philosophical distinction between how the two professions tend to approach the people they work with: “A psychologist will use certain indicators to make a diagnosis. A psychotherapist will put the client’s situation at the forefront. It doesn’t matter that their symptoms fit into certain categories, just looking at those symptoms as unique to that person and addressing those symptoms.”

That difference in orientation — diagnostic category on one hand, the individual in front of you on the other — isn’t about one being better than the other. It reflects genuinely different training emphases and genuinely different kinds of work. If you need a formal diagnosis for an insurance claim, a school accommodation, or a disability assessment, a psychologist is who you need. If you need ongoing therapeutic support for anxiety, depression, trauma, grief, relationship difficulties, or any of the concerns that bring most people to therapy, a registered psychotherapist is specifically trained for exactly that work — and often significantly more accessible in terms of availability and cost.

Psychologists in Ontario are not covered by OHIP. Sessions typically cost considerably more than registered psychotherapy — often $250 to $350 or more per session — though some insurance plans cover psychological services.

Registered Psychotherapists

In Ontario, a registered psychotherapist (RP) is regulated by the College of Registered Psychotherapists of Ontario (CRPO). To use this title, a person must complete a graduate-level program in psychotherapy or a related field, accumulate significant supervised clinical hours, pass a regulatory examination, and engage in ongoing professional development and ethical accountability.

Registered psychotherapists are specifically trained in the practice of psychotherapy — the structured, evidence-based process of working with a person’s psychological experience to produce meaningful, lasting change. The scope of practice includes working with individuals, couples, families, and groups across a wide range of presenting concerns: anxiety, depression, trauma, grief, relationships, ADHD, anger, self-esteem, life transitions, and more.

What registered psychotherapists don’t do is formally diagnose. They’re trained to understand and work with psychological presentations in depth, and many have sophisticated clinical knowledge of diagnostic categories — but the formal act of making a clinical diagnosis sits outside their regulated scope. In practice, this matters primarily when a formal diagnosis is required for a specific purpose. For the therapeutic work itself — the actual process of understanding what’s happening and building change — the absence of a formal diagnostic role rarely limits what a skilled registered psychotherapist can do.

Most extended health benefits plans in Canada cover registered psychotherapy, which is one of the reasons it’s the most accessible form of professional mental health support for most people. At Reset, sessions are $170 for fifty minutes, and no referral is required.

Registered Social Workers

Registered social workers (RSW) in Ontario are regulated by the Ontario College of Social Workers and Social Service Workers. Social workers are trained in a broad range of human services, and those who practice psychotherapy have specific clinical training in therapeutic approaches alongside the broader social work framework — which includes attention to systemic, environmental, and social factors alongside individual psychological experience.

Many RSWs provide excellent psychotherapy, and their credential is recognized by most insurance plans in the same way as registered psychotherapist credentials. The social work lens can be particularly valuable for presenting concerns that involve significant environmental, familial, or systemic dimensions — housing instability, child welfare, complex family systems, community resource navigation — alongside the psychological experience.

Counsellors

This is where things get genuinely confusing, because the word counsellor means different things depending on context.

In everyday usage, people often use counsellor and therapist interchangeably — and many registered psychotherapists describe their work as counselling. In this usage, the words are functionally synonymous and the credential behind the person is what matters.

The specific concern arises with the unregulated use of the title. In Ontario, counsellor and life coach are not protected titles. Anyone can use them regardless of training, supervision, or professional accountability. This doesn’t mean everyone who calls themselves a counsellor is inadequately trained — many have excellent education and experience. But it means there’s no regulatory body to which they’re accountable, no minimum standard of training that can be assumed, and no formal recourse if the therapeutic relationship causes harm.

When you’re choosing someone to work with on significant psychological concerns — anxiety, trauma, depression, relationship difficulty — the regulatory protection that comes with working with an RP or RSW matters. It’s a meaningful form of consumer protection that unregulated titles don’t carry.

Psychiatrists

Worth adding for completeness: a psychiatrist is a medical doctor who has completed a specialty in psychiatry. They’re the only mental health professionals who can prescribe medication in Ontario. Some psychiatrists also provide psychotherapy, but many function primarily in assessment and medication management roles — particularly within the public healthcare system, where access is limited and waitlists are often significant.

Psychiatrists are covered by OHIP, which makes their medication management role accessible, but access typically requires a referral from a family doctor and often involves significant wait times. For most people seeking ongoing therapeutic support, a psychiatrist is not the primary access point — though coordinating with a psychiatrist or family doctor around medication, when medication is part of the picture, is something a registered psychotherapist can support alongside their therapy work.

How to Decide What You Need

For most people seeking therapy for anxiety, depression, trauma, grief, relationship difficulties, ADHD, anger, self-esteem concerns, or any of the common presenting concerns that bring people to mental health support — a registered psychotherapist or registered social worker is the appropriate starting point. They’re trained specifically for this work, regulated in ways that protect you, typically more accessible in terms of availability and cost than psychologists or psychiatrists, and covered by most extended health benefits plans.

If you need a formal psychological assessment — for ADHD diagnosis, a learning disability, an autism evaluation, or a medico-legal assessment — a psychologist is specifically required for that work.

If you need medication prescribed or reviewed — for depression, anxiety, ADHD, or another condition where medication is part of the treatment picture — that conversation starts with your family doctor or a psychiatrist.

And if you’re unsure where to start, the FAQs for clients at Reset covers many of the practical questions about accessing therapy — including what credentials to look for, what’s covered by insurance, and how to know if a therapist is the right fit.

Registered Psychotherapy in Barrie

At Reset Counselling & Psychotherapy, our team of registered psychotherapists and a registered social worker offer individual counselling, couples therapy, and adolescent support across a wide range of concerns — in person at our Barrie location and virtually across Ontario. No referral needed.

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Reset Counselling & Psychotherapy is located at Unit 201-151 Essa Road, Barrie, ON. We offer individual counselling, couples therapy, adolescent support, and a full range of mental health services, in person and virtually across Ontario.