Psychotherapy or Counselling?
This section is aimed at those with little or no experience of counselling/therapy.
Counselling or Psychotherapy?
Broadly speaking, counselling is short-term, lasting between 6 weeks up to a few months. It tends to focus on a specific issue you bring, such as bereavement, depression, infertility, anxiety, bullying, relationship / marriage issues or sexuality problems, etc.
Psychotherapy is a longer-term commitment and is based on an open-ended contract. The length of time is very individual, varying from months up to years. In psychotherapy, issues are explored on a deeper level and it can be anything from an interest in self-exploration and personal growth, to specific, long running problems such as a mental health issue, relationship difficulties, abuse, sexual identity, etc. If you bring an addiction, we would look at the underlying reasons as well as strategies and support systems that can help you break free you from your addiction, the one premise being that you actually want to stop.
There is an overlap between counselling and psychotherapy, as at times people start off in counselling having sought help for a particular problem, find the process very useful and so continue into more long-term therapy. At other times people come for a while, have a break and then come back because something else has come up that they want to look at. In either case, sessions are generally once weekly (in certain circumstances twice weekly) and last an hour.