PSYCHOTHERAPY
Psychotherapy is a talking therapy that offers confidential professional help in a safe boundaried environment. People may come with psychological, emotional and/or life issues.
For instance depression, long-standing difficulties in relationships or relating to others; family issues from the past or in the present; traumatic experiences that do not recede; life changes that are not easily accommodated; an unhappy past or childhood.
Feelings of loss or bereavement as well as low self-esteem also lead people to seek therapy. While some problems seem identifiable sometimes the causes of depression or deep unhappiness may not be apparent although the pain is very real.
COUNSELLING
Counselling can be sought to address similar difficulties to those expressed above and can also be offered in specialist areas such as bereavement or to victims of crime.
Some counselling training reaches the level of once weekly psychotherapy so the two can overlap. As a rule, therefore, counselling may be sought to address a particular problem or series of problems and be provided once a week.
Open ended counselling can help to deal with longer term issues, while psychotherapy addresses a deeper level, taking into account the unconscious as well as conscious areas of the mind and psyche.
