Therepists, Psychologists, and Psychiatrists

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I've never quite understood what the difference between them all is, and I tend to use them interchangeably as the same word without thinking, which I'm sure is incorrect. Which one (or ones) can actually diagnose you with something? Can anyone clear this up?

Thank you. :)

I'm not entirely sure either, but I believe a therapist is someone who provides therapy to help the patient overcome problems in their life, whether mental or physical.
I think a psychologist is someone who studies/is an expert in psychology and a psychiatrist is someone who diagnoses and treats mental disorders.

So for example, the person who diagnoses someone with Asperger's Syndrome is a psychiatrist because they diagnosed a mental disorder, but (hopefully) also a psychologist because I'm guessing they would have studied psychology. If they then went on to give you professional therapy, then it seems they would also be your therapist. It's all very confusing.

Psychiatrists deal with abnormal brains, psychologists deal with abnormal thought processes and therapists deal with everyday life issues. So psychiatrists diagnose mental disorders and proscribe drugs, psychologists highlight your thought patterns and how to change them while therapists are talk about your problems more generally.

In truth, I think the whole system and division is highly flawed. With the exceptions of a few specific disorders (e.g. huntington's, parkinson's) there has been almost no success at spatially locating brain abnormalities, yet so many mental health problems are assigned into this category. Equally, that swathes of psychological problems can be linked towards abnormal thought processes strikes me as an outdated Freudian notion. Meanwhile, general life issues affect everyone.

Given these false distinction, (in my experience) psychologists, psychiatrists and therapists will all ultimately focus of similar material with you, just each places emphasis on different parts. Your best hope is try and account for their biases when dealing with them, but I suspect a psychologist is your best bet for diagnosis.

Psychiatrists are medical doctors. Some psychiatrists treat only with medication or other medical procedures and eschew therapy altogether.

Psychologists are not medical doctors (unless they have MDs in addition to a PhD or PsyD) and use a variety of therapeutic techniques and processes to assist clients; they cannot prescribe medication in most jurisdictions (IIRC).

Therapists can be social workers, vocational rehab counselors, marriage & family therapists, etc; generally they're educated mental health professionals who are not psychologists or psychiatrists--these terms are reserved for use by licensed professionals only whereas therapist is more general.

This is probably somewhat different outside of the US and may vary to a smaller extent by state within the US.

In the United States, a psychiatrist, psychologist, and master social worker can diagnosis Asperger's Syndrome (and other conditions).