Therapies and allied health
Psychologist
A mental health professional who works with how you are coping, and who can also assess changes in thinking and behaviour.
A psychologist works with mood, anxiety, adjustment and coping, using talking approaches rather than medication. In ALS/MND they also have a second, quite separate role: a neuropsychologist can assess changes in thinking, language or behaviour, which matter for decisions and for the people around you.
How you reach this person, and who pays, depends on where you live. Set your country in Location and Compass will show what applies there.
What they can help with
- Anxiety, low mood and the fear that comes with an uncertain future
- Adjusting after diagnosis, and again after each change
- Practical strategies for sleep, panic and intrusive thoughts
- Support for partners, carers and children
- Assessment of changes in thinking, language or behaviour, where a neuropsychologist is involved
- Helping a team understand whether a change is mood, fatigue, medication or the condition
When you might meet them
- Whenever coping has become harder, which is not a threshold anyone else should set for you
- After diagnosis, and after each significant change
- When family members are struggling, including children
- When someone has noticed a change in decision making, personality or language
Things you could ask about
- Is what I am feeling a normal reaction, and does that change what helps?
- How many sessions is realistic, and what happens after they run out?
- Can my partner or carer be seen too, or separately?
- If thinking has changed, what does that mean practically for decisions?
Not to be confused with
Not a psychiatrist. A psychiatrist is a medical doctor who can prescribe medication; a psychologist generally cannot. For some problems you want one, for some the other, and for some both.