It can be difficult to understand the different titles and who does what. We will explain the concepts to you.

A licensed psychologist has completed a five-year university degree in psychology, and then completed one year of practical service for psychologists. The practical service for psychologists include working full time as a psychologist while having a supervisor guiding the psychologist. The psychology education is broad and includes, in addition to education in psychotherapy (psychological treatment), many more areas.

A licensed psychotherapist has first completed at least 3 years of training at a university focused on human care (a bachelor), such as a psychologist, sociologist, doctor, nurse, priest or similar. All professional groups, except psychologists, then need to attend a basic education in psychotherapy. After working with psychotherapeutic tasks for two years, you can go to university to become a psychotherapist, which is carried out at half speed for 3 years.

At Ahum, all psychologists and psychotherapists are licensed, which means that the National Board of Health and Welfare ensures that the professional psychologist and / or psychotherapist has sufficient training and knowledge to treat clients. This means that you as a client can feel confident that the care you receive is of high quality. As a client, you can also report licensed staff to the Swedish Health and Care Inspectorate (IVO) if you believe that your care has been deficient. For licensed personnel in health care, the duty of confidentiality and the duty to keep records according to law also apply. Read more about the duty of confidentiality and the duty to keep records here.

You can read more about the difference between a psychologist and a psychotherapist in our post here (currently only available in Swedish).