In most states, counselors are licensed, though a license may not be required. Most states do not require counselors to have attained an undergraduate college degree. Social workers usually work for governmental entities and many county judicial systems have a corps of social workers available for use in custody and other family conflicts. Social workers typically have an educational background in sociology and learn more about how groups of people behave than about individuals, especially children. At the risk of generalizing unfairly, my experience has been that conservative assertive males do not relate warmly to social workers.
Psychologists are far and away the most commonly utilized experts in custody litigation.
Psychologists have completed hundreds of hours of undergraduate and graduate study in the field of psychology and are accredited by the American Psychological Association. Of these, only clinical psychologists are properly trained to perform custody evaluations. Unfortunately, it is common for psychologists to practice in several fields, though they have no specialized training in all of them. According to a leading child custody psychologist, to be an effective custody evaluator, a psychologist should have a degree at the doctoral level in psychology, at least several years of hands on experience as a clinician post doctoral, a solid base of experience and knowledge relating to child, adolescent and adult development, including both normal and abnormal psychology, and a full understanding of family dynamics including the effects of divorce. Additionally, a good custody evaluator will be current on the latest research and studies in the field.