What Does a Counsellor Do?
Counselling is a type of talking therapy. A counsellor is trained to listen to you and help you find ways to deal with emotional problems.
What counsellors do and how they are trained varies by country. In Malaysia, most counsellors are trained in Person-Centered Therapy, which is based on the belief that people can grow and change on their own when they receive the right emotional support. Rather than offering direct advice, counsellors create a safe space for clients to explore their problems and find their own solutions.
In Malaysia, the training for counsellors can vary. Some school counsellors may have only a few weeks of training, while other counsellors might have a master’s degree or doctorate in counselling.
Some counsellors learn more approaches, skills and techniques that go beyond Person Centered Therapy. Their work can look similar to that of a clinical psychologist. If you’re not sure you can ask your counsellor which approaches they are using and how they are specifically using it with you.
You can find our more about counselling by visiting the Malaysian Board of Counsellors (Lembaga Kaunselor Malaysia) website. Their website is sometimes down so you can may also wish to check their Facebook page.
What Does a Clinical Psychologist Do?
Clinical psychologists also listen to their clients in a supportive and non-judgmental way. If they recognize that a client already has the skills and knowledge to solve a problem, they will guide the client to realize this, similar to how a counsellor using Person-Centred Therapy would. However, there are times when clients may lack the skills or knowledge to solve their own problems.
In these situations, clinical psychologists can be particularly helpful. They are trained to teach clients new skills and strategies to overcome emotional challenges and lead a more fulfilling life.
To decide which skills to teach each individual, clinical psychologists follow a process called the scientist-practitioner approach. This means they use research and scientific methods in combination with their clinical experience to understand and help their clients. Medical doctors often use a similar approach to understand illnesses, create hypotheses about their causes, and test treatments to find what works best for their patients.
The process used by clinical psychologists usually includes these steps:
- Assessment: we gather information and try to get to know you as best we can. We will ask you questions to understand how the difficulties you face came to be. Where appropriate, and only with your permission, we may ask others about you.
- Formulation: we work with you to build up an explanation of why the problems started, what’s keeping those problems going and most importantly what we can do to help.
- Intervention: we use this understanding to select which skills you need to learn to overcome the problems you are facing and live a fulfilling life. We teach you these skills and support you in implementing them in your daily life.
- Evaluation: We check if the new skills have helped. If they haven’t we go back to gather more information, understand the problem better and create a new plan.
Using this process clinical psychologists can help with many types of problems, from everyday stress to serious mental health issues (you can see a list of example problems here).
Clinical psychologists use different theoretical methods in combination with the scientist-practitioner approach. The most common method with the strongest scientific evidence base is Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT). All the psychologists at Share Resolve have been trained in CBT. However, we found that two branches of CBT, Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Compassion Focussed Therapy, were a better fit for Asian culture. We then further combined and adapted these methods to be more appropriate for Asian culture. The result is our library of knowledge and skills that we call the ReFlex Method. You can read more about the ReFlex Method here.
Psychiatric diagnoses
Clinical psychologists are trained to provide psychiatric diagnoses, whereas counsellors are not. A diagnosis can be useful for insurance claims or securing accommodations at school or work. However, there are also drawbacks, such as the risk of being treated poorly due to the label.
The British Psychological Society advises against using diagnoses unless necessary. This is because a diagnosis alone provides limited insight—two people with the same diagnosis, such as depression, may experience it in very different ways.
At Share Resolve, we rarely use diagnosis and will never provide one without your permission. Instead, we take a formulation-based approach. Rather than focusing on labels, we explore how a person’s thoughts, emotions, and behaviours interact to shape their difficulties. This approach allows us to develop personalised coping strategies that evolve as circumstances change.
For a more detailed explanation of our approach to psychiatric diagnosis, please visit this page on our website.
Psycho-educational assessments of learning
A unique capability of clinical psychologists is the ability to conduct psycho-educational assessments or neuropsychological assessments. These tests check abilities like memory, problem-solving, and language skills.
They help understand why someone might be struggling with school or work. These assessments look at the patterns of an individual’s different cognitive abilities such as verbal intelligence, visual-spatial ability memory, executive functioning etc to determine why they may be having academic or professional difficulties. You can read more about them here.
Qualifications
In Malaysia, clinical psychologists must have at least a Master’s degree in Clinical Psychology to practice whereas there’s more variability in counsellors qualifications.
Further questions
If you have any comments or questions please leave them below.
I am not an science stream student when I was in Form 5 (SPM) and I am currently studying in form 6 (STPM) now. Can I be a clinical psycologist?
Hi, yes you can still be a clinical psychologist. To get onto a clinical psychology masters or doctoral course you usually need to have a Psychology undergraduate degree. Psychology degree courses prefer candidates that have done sciences but it’s still possible for other students to attend. I was the admissions tutor at the University of Nottingham Malaysia’s Psychology degree course and I often accepted arts students onto the course. Other courses may have different requirements. If you’re interested you can go to the university’s psychology pages and check their minimum academic requirements. For example, Nottingham’s minimum requirements can be found here : https://www.nottingham.edu.my/Study/Undergraduate-courses/Psychology/Psychology-BSc-(Hons).aspx (you may have to click on Entry Requirements).
Hi Dr. May I know what are the career prospects upon completion of MSc in Clinical Psychology? I believe that not all Clinical Psychologist are working in the field that they would like to. On the other hand, do you happen to know how many clinical psychologist are working in a hospital?
Presently, there are very few jobs available in Clinical Psychology. The government only has a few positions available for clinical psychologists so there aren’t many clinical psychologists working in government hospitals (I estimate less than 15). Some clinical psychologists work with universities because those jobs are often better paid. The majority of clinical psychologists work for themselves or partner with other clinical psychologists. You have to be more entrepreneurial to do this but it does seem to be a viable option.
Hi Dr. Dan, you mentioned that in Malaysia, Clinical Psychologists must have at least a Master’s Degree in Clinical Psychology in order to practice.
My question would be, if I have a Master’s Degree in Counselling Psychology (MSc in Professional Counselling in Monash University), would it possible to practice therapy in local mental health clinics?
Hi Jag, the MSc in Professional Counselling at Monash University seems to be a good course (based on my interactions with the trainees I have met). It’s a counselling course so it would be regulated by the rules concerning counselling rather than those concerning clinical psychology. I think the Monash course is accredited by Australian Counselling bodies and it has been submitted for accreditation by the Malaysian Board of Counsellors. I don’t know whether that would allow you to work in the local mental health clinics. It is possible that an individual can apply for accreditation by the Malaysian Board of Counsellors once they’ve completed the Monash course even if the course itself is not yet accredited. It’s also possible that the Mental Health Clinics might accept the Australian accreditation. I think the best option would be to contact the Monash course directly and ask them how their graduates have been faring in finding work.
Hi Dr. Dan,
I am a medical doctor with MBBS, and I am interested in being a clinical psychologist. I see Psychological issues as ‘in demand’ nowadays in Malaysia, I would like to contribute more in this field (than being a psychiatrist). My question is, I don’t have any basic in the subject, will it be possible to straightaway do Master? Second question, what is your opinion on the career pathway after completion of Master in Clinical Psychology?
Hi Amirah, it’s really good to hear that you’re interested in psychological issues as a medical doctor. Unfortunately, it’s not that easy to transfer from medicine to clinical psychology because most of the clinical psychology courses require you to have a psychology undergraduate degree (or at least have done a conversion masters in psychology). The career path for clinical psychologists is a bit more challenging – at the moment you need to be quite entrepreneurial as there aren’t many jobs available. Malaysia would really benefit from having psychiatrists that were also trained in talking therapies. If you chose to specialise in psychiatry and then do extra training in talking therapies I think you would be in demand (and there are jobs available in the public system for psychiatrists).
Can I do Master in Clinical Psycology with a degree in councelling
Clinical Psychology courses usually require that you have a psychology undergraduate degree. However, you can check with each course just in case they accept a counselling degree. If you are already a registered counsellor you could try to get some post graduate qualifications or training in different counselling techniques. Or you could do a post-gradaute counselling qualification (such as the Masters in Professional Counseling at Monash University)
Dear Dr Dan, I am currently making a research to pursue my studies in the area of psychology. I came across one program in Open University Malaysia, KL Campus offering Master of Psychology.
Firstly, I am trying to learn the difference between qualification that has the word “clinical” in it.
Are there any difference when i graduate in Master of Psychology VS. Master of Clinical Psychology.
Secondly, when someone call himself a psychologist, what qualities or qualification one must possess to address himself a psychologist?
Down the road, I am slanted to work towards human resources and corporate strategist. I trust this will be an added advantage edge to have.
I appreciate you taking the time to answer my queries. Pls share your thoughts about the Master of Psychology program offered by the Open University of Malaysia as well.
Hi AJ,
The difference between a Masters in Clinical Psychology and a Masters in Psychology is that a Masters in Clinical Psychology in Malaysia will allow you to work clinically with people. It will teach you to use talking therapy such as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy to help people in psychological distress. A Masters in Psychology is an academic course which is likely to focus more on theory and research (depending on the course). It would prepare you to be an academic. Both could call themselves a psychologist as that’s the umbrella term and it’s not protected. But only one (the clinical psychologist) could claim to work with individuals, couples or families to try to help with psychological distress. If you worked in a university then you could call yourself a Research Psychologist or a Psychology Lecturer. If you worked in HR you’d probably say that you are an HR specialist with a background in psychology.
I don’t know much about the Open University Course in Malaysia – if you contact the course perhaps they can put you in touch with some alumni of the course so you can hear how they found it and whether they found it helpful in their careers.
I hope that helps.
Hello there. Do you have any thoughts or experience with University of Malaya’s (UM) Master of Professional Counselling course? There is not much information I can find online.
Hi Ryan, unfortunately I don’t know anything about the counselling course at UM. The only counselling course in Malaysia that I have any familiarity with is the one at Monash. It’s a good course but it’s quite expensive in comparison to other courses in Malaysia.