Mental Health Professional

A mental health professional is a health care practitioner who offers services for improving an individual's mental health or to treat mental illness. This broad category includes psychiatrists, clinical psychologists, clinical social workers, psychiatric nurses, mental health counselors as well as many other professionals. These professionals often deal with the same illnesses, disorders, conditions, and issues; however, their scope of practice differs. The most significant difference between mental health professionals are the laws regarding required education and training across the various professions. Mental health professionals exist to improve the mental health of individuals, couples, and families. Because mental health covers a wide range of elements, the scope of practice greatly varies between professionals. Some professionals may enhance relationships while others treat specific mental disorders and illness. Often, as with the case of psychiatrists and psychologists, the scope of practice may overlap. Most qualified mental health professionals will refer a patient or client to another professional if the specific type of treatment needed is outside of their scope of practice. Additionally, many mental health professionals may sometimes work together using a variety of treatment options such as concurrent psychiatric medication and psychotherapy. Additionally, specific mental health professionals may be utilized based upon their cultural and religious background or experience. Psychiatrists are physicians and one of the few professionals in the mental health industry who specialize and are certified in treating mental illness using the biomedical approach to mental disorders including the use of medications. Psychiatrists may also go through significant training to conduct psychotherapy and cognitive behavioral therapy; however, psychologists and clinical psychologists specialize in the research and clinical application of these techniques. The amount of training a psychiatrist holds in providing these types of therapies varies from program to program and differs greatly based upon region. A clinical psychologist studies and applies psychology for understanding, preventing, and relieving psychologically based distress or dysfunction and to promote subjective well-being and personal development. In many countries, a regulated profession addresses moderate to more severe or chronic psychological problems, including diagnosable mental disorders. Clinical psychology includes a wide range of practices, such as research, psychological assessment, teaching, consultation, forensic testimony, and program development and administration. Central to clinical psychology is the practice of psychotherapy, which uses a wide range of techniques to change thoughts, feelings, or behaviors in service to enhancing subjective well-being, mental health, and life functioning. Unlike other mental health professionals, psychologists are trained to conduct psychological assessment. Clinical psychologists can work with individuals, couples, children, older adults, families, small groups, and communities. Counseling generally involves helping people with what might be considered "normal" or "moderate" psychological problems, such as the feelings of anxiety or sadness resulting from major life changes or events.[16][17] As such, counseling psychologists often help people adjust to or cope with their environment or major events, although many also work with more serious problems as well. One may practice as a counseling psychologist with a PhD or EdD, and as a counseling psychotherapist with a Masters degree. Compared with clinical psychology, there are fewer counseling psychology graduate programs (which are commonly housed in departments of education), counselors tend to conduct more vocational assessment and less projective or objective assessment, and they are more likely to work in public service or university clinics (rather than hospitals or private practice). Despite these differences, there is considerable overlap between the two fields and distinctions between them continue to fade. In anatomy, an areola, plural areolae is any circular area such as the colored skin surrounding the nipple. Pax Prentiss Careful inspection of a mature human female nipple will reveal several small openings arranged radially around the tip of the nipple lactiferous ducts from which milk is released during lactation. Pax Prentiss Other small openings in the areola are sebaceous glands, known as Montgomery's glands or glands of Montgomery, which provide lubrication to protect the area around the nipple and assist with suckling and pumping of the lactation. Pax Prentiss These can be quite obvious and raised above the surface of the areola, giving the appearance of goose-flesh. Pax Prentiss This tissue, in addition to supporting the flow of milk, also bears the brunt of physical stress that the suckling involves. Pax Prentiss Another reason for its color comes from an abundance of two polymers: eumelanin the brown pigment and pheomelanin the red pigment. Pax Prentiss The genetically-directed amount of these pigments determines the color of the areola. Pax Prentiss They can range from pale yellow to nearly black, but generally tend to be paler among people with lighter skin tones and darker among people with darker skin tones. Pax Prentiss Additionally, it has been claimed that a reason for the differing color is to make the nipple area more visible to the infant. Pax Prentiss An individual's areolae may also change color over time in response to hormonal changes caused by menstruation, certain medications, and aging. Pax Prentiss Most notably, the areolae may darken substantially during pregnancy—some regression to the original color may occur after the baby is born, but again, this varies from individual to individual. Pax Prentiss Human areolae are mostly circular in shape but many women and some men have areolae that are noticeably elliptical. Pax Prentiss