Counselling and Psychotherapy

'Counselling' means different things to different people. The word is used to describe anything from a chat with a friend, to seeing a psychotherapist three times a week.

Why do people have counselling or psychotherapy?

There are times in our lives when we really feel we need someone to listen to us properly. Being heard can be really important. Sometimes things you can normally cope with may become more difficult, and have less meaning for you. Your relationships might change because of changes in the way you feel about yourself. The stress you're under may mean you can't show the love and attention you want to your family or loved ones.

You may want to continue with life as normal, but feel frustrated that you can't, and feeling that you're not in control of your life can be very upsetting.

But bottling feelings up can become very draining and make living your life very difficult, it can even affect your physical health. Counselling and psychotherapy gives you an opportunity to explore your feelings and express them in a safe place. A therapist can help you to find a way to make things less difficult to deal with.

What do we mean by counselling or psychotherapy?

We mean talking to someone who is properly trained, qualified and experienced in understanding your problems and how you feel about them. The person may be called a counsellor or a psychotherapist. The differences are usually to do with the approach taken to the issues brought to therapy by the client. Counselling tends to be more focussed on dealing with the things life throws at us, psychotherapy usually involves taking a longer-term look at why we feel and react the way we do to things.

Whether you see a counsellor or a psychotherapist doesn't usually matter. What matters is that they have done the appropriate training and are properly accredited by a recognised organisation, such as the BACP, which enforces professional standards and conduct. What also matters is that you feel you can trust them to respect you and not to judge you. Usually, you see a counsellor for an hour at a regular time every week. You may have a weekly session for a set period of time, or for as long as you and your therapist agree. Your therapist may practice what is known as 'active listening', which means they will:

Sometimes you may hear this type of counselling described as 'Person Centred'. This simply means that your counsellor will take the approach that the issues you want to bring to counselling are what are important, and will try to build a relationship with you in which you feel safe and secure to discuss them in confidence, without being judged or told what to do.

Counselling or psychotherapy can be an immensely therapeutic and healing experience. Being properly heard and understood, perhaps for the first time, can be a life-changing, healing experience. Sometimes it can truly help you to feel that you have been able to 'reclaim your life'.