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The Difference between Counselling & Therapy

“Going for Counselling” or “being in therapy” are sometimes phrases that can sound scary to people who have not experienced opening up about their problems.

 

This is perfectly understandable when you consider that you are being asked to consider exploring your thoughts and feelings and experiences with a stranger! So it’s reassuring to learn that quite the opposite is achieved. Counselling gives you a safe place where you can explore and express your thoughts and feelings with support and without judgement. And you can expect a supportive, understanding, empathetic and encouraging relationship with your Counsellor.

 

When there’s a gap between how your life feels and what you would actually desire for your life, counselling can offer an opportunity to become aware of how you live life, how you want to live life, and how to bring them closer together.

 

Counselling tends to be a shorter process, which looks at the present, is problem focused and deals more with day-to-day issues. Psychotherapy tends to be a longer process and often explores the client’s core self, how and why things have become this way, which usually includes reflecting on our personal history.

 

Psychotherapy can help us to become newly conscious of the patterns of how we think, feel and act. Psychotherapy also often uses the relationship between the client and the therapist as a valuable resource to reflect on wider relationship patterns.