herapists and counselors have a variety of styles and training, and how we are trained influences us and how we do our jobs. A psychologist, social worker, mental health counselor, pastoral counselor, Christian counselor, and marriage and family therapist all work from different philosophies and schools of thought. They can be as different as night and day. Many people assume I am a psychologist, for example, but I am as far from that as one can get and would not want to be one. I am a marriage and family therapist (MFT). The MFT thinks systemically about the whole family and each member’s influence on everyone else. We are specialists and the only mental health professionals trained to treat children, individuals, couples, and families; a psychologist usually tests people and writes psych evaluations, and if they do clinical psychologist work, they see one person at a time. The psychology training is generally steeped in older, more conservative theories like psychoanalysis, behavioral therapy, and Aaron Beck’s cognitive behavioral therapy.