Counselling and Psychotherapy may be considered as ‘the same thing’ and are often used interchangeably, however, this is not the case. They are both forms of talking therapies yet targeted towards different needs.
Below I explain the main differences:
Counselling: Beneficial for short-term, problem focussed situations. For example:
- Bereavement (loss of a loved one)
- Loss of job
- Addiction (substance and behavioural)
- Specific anxieties
- Eating disorders (bulimia, anorexia nervosa, binge eating disorder (BED))
- Work-related stress
- Low self-esteem
- Anger
- Sexual identity
Psychotherapy: A long-term therapeutic work to enable clients to change on many levels of experience and helps clients to gain insight into emotional problems. This approach is beneficial for those who want to address:
- Relationship difficulties
- Depression
- Negative behavioural patterns
- Childhood trauma
- In-depth focus on internal thoughts
- Past life events
This is where it gets a bit more interesting. There are many ‘approaches’ within psychotherapy. Follow the link below to find out more:
https://www.psychotherapy.org.uk/what-is-psychotherapy/types-of-psychotherapy/
