To be sure, a good psychiatrist has a good understanding of the different therapy modalities. That said, psychiatrists are definitely not counselors. Some believe trends in healthcare are sending psychiatrists further away from talk therapy and more into pharmacology, medical management. To be sure, they do much more "counseling" than any other field of medicine, but it is still very much a field of medicine and in fact increasingly being medicalized. The biopsychosocial model of psychiatry starts with bio, and most psychiatrists cannot neglect that aspect.
There are a few (and a dying breed it seems) who do psychoanalysis, or at least are trained in it, and they do extensive talk therapy while sometimes still prescribing medicine. however, this commitment is substantial as it is 4 years med school, 4 years residency (of which the first year is mostly internal medicine and neurology, and the second year is mostly inpatient psych and ER where you aren't really dealing with straight counseling, and then finally third and fourth year are some combination of talk therapy and pharm), and then at least 4 years and some say about 1/2 a million bucks to invest into being a full blown analyst. Some others may do a 2 year fellowship in psychodynamic theory after residency and then deal predominantly in private practice with high functioning anxiety patients and the like.
In order to be a "counselor" type as a psychiatrist, you'll probably have to go the route of private practice in a major city (New York is probably the most amenable to this) where most of your patients can afford to sustain you with out of pocket financing (read: wealthy) such that you can maintain a good standard of living (if you are into that sort of thing). That will take you gradually further away from the bio part of the equation, and some people frown upon that but others love that idea.
Many psychology phds will express that they are much better trained in counseling patients and they are mostly right, but you can make some of that difference up with post residency fellowships in certain therapy modalities. And at many residency institutions, you get a very solid outpatient therapy training in the last 2 years.
But the key here is that med school is not something to just do for kicks...its very demanding and some say residency can be even worse. I would tell anybody who asked me if they should go to med school..."No, I don't recommend it (proceeding to selectively tell them all the negative things about med school" and if they still were dead set on it, then they are supposed to go to med school. Otherwise, do something else.
On the other hand, being a primary care doctor can be an extremely fulfilling role where relationships are developed long term and much counseling adn treatment of basic depression and anxiety may go on (if your a good doctor). The problem is, you can't see any patient for more than fifteen minutes.
