There tends to be much confusion over what is the difference between counselling and psychotherapy. Typically Counselling is shorter in length where Psychotherapy can be long term.
Counselling offers support in day to day issues, a listening ear to one's difficulties. Psychotherapy tends to delve deeper to ascertain, for example the root of a problem. At which point the aim would be how to resolve embedded deep issues.
It can be an unnerving experience, walking into a room with someone you’ve never met before and speaking your deepest fears, fantasies and wounds.
Why is it useful? Friends get distracted, cannot deal with everything you want to say and may tell other shared acquaintances about what has happened. Therapists are trained to listen without judgement; they don’t get bored and interrupt.
People come to therapy for lots of reasons. There may be so much emotional pain and turmoil that has never been allowed to surface that living feels unbearable, the sadness and hurt you feel unacknowledged, unprocessed.
One might be obsessed with someone, something, stuck in an inescapable moment in time. One may fret about someone not liking you to the point that nothing else matters. A trauma or abuse may have occurred which stops you from doing certain things or trusting anyone. You may be perpetually in a state of high anxiety and hyper-vigilance, waiting for the next disaster to occur.
An abusive relationship scarring your trust in future love and relationships. A family dynamic that continues to disturb or irritate. Old wounds and stories are endlessly played out; “Why,” we ask, “does it always happen to me?”
The death of a loved one may shut you down emotionally, allowing you to carry on but stealing your emotional responses to the point that relationships feel impossible to develop. Grief needs to happen and a therapist can help.
Friends and family mean well when they try to change the subject when your feelings become intolerable. But a therapist does not do that: they allow you to speak the unspeakable, unbearable truth of your sadness.
This is a good article on what to look for in a Therapist
Counselling offers support in day to day issues, a listening ear to one's difficulties. Psychotherapy tends to delve deeper to ascertain, for example the root of a problem. At which point the aim would be how to resolve embedded deep issues.
It can be an unnerving experience, walking into a room with someone you’ve never met before and speaking your deepest fears, fantasies and wounds.
Why is it useful? Friends get distracted, cannot deal with everything you want to say and may tell other shared acquaintances about what has happened. Therapists are trained to listen without judgement; they don’t get bored and interrupt.
People come to therapy for lots of reasons. There may be so much emotional pain and turmoil that has never been allowed to surface that living feels unbearable, the sadness and hurt you feel unacknowledged, unprocessed.
One might be obsessed with someone, something, stuck in an inescapable moment in time. One may fret about someone not liking you to the point that nothing else matters. A trauma or abuse may have occurred which stops you from doing certain things or trusting anyone. You may be perpetually in a state of high anxiety and hyper-vigilance, waiting for the next disaster to occur.
An abusive relationship scarring your trust in future love and relationships. A family dynamic that continues to disturb or irritate. Old wounds and stories are endlessly played out; “Why,” we ask, “does it always happen to me?”
The death of a loved one may shut you down emotionally, allowing you to carry on but stealing your emotional responses to the point that relationships feel impossible to develop. Grief needs to happen and a therapist can help.
Friends and family mean well when they try to change the subject when your feelings become intolerable. But a therapist does not do that: they allow you to speak the unspeakable, unbearable truth of your sadness.
This is a good article on what to look for in a Therapist