Differences in Counselling, Psychotherapy and Psychology
When people find themselves struggling with their mental health, the last thing they need to face is the confusion of where to seek it. Although the GP is the first call for many, it can still be a struggle to understand the different routes of help available to you. In general, there are four umbrella terms for help when it comes to mental health: Counselling, Psychology, Psychiatry or Psychotherapy. All four of these umbrella approaches will each have a multitude of different routes and approaches within them but the truth is that all four therapeutic approaches have their benefits depending on what your needs and struggles are. Here we take a very basic look at the four approaches to therapy so you can get an idea of what you need.
Counselling
Counselling is one of the most commonly recognised forms of therapy and can often be seen as more shorter term treatment (e.g., months rather than years), usually helping people to understand and cope with unexpected life events or issues that are happening in the here and now. Examples of this may be a sudden change with work or career, a bereavement, relationships difficulties, struggles with children or family or coming to terms with an illness, disability, sexual dysfunctions, compulsive behaviours, etc.
Although recognising emotions and offering empathy and compassion, counsellors often focus more around the thinking part of your mind, helping you to understand the options and choices you have available to you. They may help you to develop coping mechanisms for dealing with the situation you are in and helping with your emotional or bodily reaction to those situations. Counselling can also be used to overcome habits and compulsions such as OCD.
Some common counselling techniques include CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) which has become more and more popular in recent years and which is most often used in the NHS. EMDR is another cognitive approach for dealing with trauma. Counselling is favored when it comes to work with couples, group and family therapy due to the cognitive and behavioural aspects of the work.
Psychotherapy
When people first hear the word psychotherapy, it often reminds them of psychiatry, however the two are not that similar at all. Psychotherapy is much more similar to counselling in that it is a talking based therapy designed to help you gain new insights and awareness's into your problems.
Psychotherapy tends to be a longer term therapeutic treatment usually aimed at people who have suffered so significantly in the past that it continues to intrude on their present day, impacting and disrupting their quality of life. Usually people who come for psychotherapy treatment will have encountered repeating patterns of unhealthy or unwanted emotions or behaviours throughout their lives. A few examples of the issues a psychotherapist may work with would include depression, anxiety, anger issues, emotional dysregulation, confidence and self-esteem, addiction and self-destructive habits around food, alcohol, drugs, gambling or sex, physical and sexual abuse, rape, abandonment, trauma and many others.
As psychotherapists are dealing with much deeper, raw emotional states, they have to have additional training compared to counsellors. However it is worth remembering that in the UK, counselling and psychotherapy professions are not legally regulated which means untrained or inexperienced people can call themselves counsellors or psychotherapists. It is always advisable to check your therapists’ qualifications, accrediting memberships with professional bodies (such as the BACP and UKCP) and their experience level before committing to sessions.
Psychology
Psychology can almost be seen as a middle ground between the counselling / psychotherapeutic approaches and psychiatry. Like psychiatry, it is more based on a medical model and relies on tried and tested tools and ideas. Although counselling and psychotherapy also use tried and tested theories and methodologies, they tend to work with an individual person’s experience of life. Psychology uses a framework of how “people” are and the expected experience of a culture, age group, etc. rather than necessarily an individual’s unique experience.
To illustrate, imagine someone bringing a snake into a crowded room. Some people would be terrified and want to leave, others would love it and want to hold it, some may not be bothered either way. Counselling and psychotherapy would look at each person’s unique experience and perception of that snake and work with their individual reaction. Psychology would look more at what may be going on for someone based on cultural norms and used tried and tested methods such as CBT to help bring about change.
It’s important to remember that out of the three talking therapies (Counselling, psychotherapy and psychology), none are better or worse than the other. They all have their advantages and are all important assets when helping to bring about psychological change. It really comes down to which you feel more drawn to and comfortable with! The more comfort and connection you feel with a certain approach, the more likely you are to find success with it.
Psychiatry
The idea of seeing a psychiatrist can seem like a very scary prospect, but it can be very helpful in certain circumstances. Psychiatrists are the only professionals who can officially diagnoses mental health disorders such as Borderline Personality Disorder, Autism, ADHD, Bi-Polar and many more. They are then the only professionals who are able to prescribe medications to treat these disorders. Your GP can give medication for anxiety and depression but a psychiatrist is responsible for any other medication relating to your mental health.
A good way to think about it is that psychiatrists look after the neurological aspects of mental health - as in things that might be physically not working correctly in your brain (usually the levels of different neurological chemicals and hormones). Counsellors, psychotherapists and psychologists tend to deal with the psychological aspects of mental health - as in things which have been experienced and learnt in life.
With all these approaches, remember that you can access them through the NHS and your GP, however the waiting list tends to be quite long and then amount of sessions you can get with a professional is limited. The private route (such as the counselling and psychotherapy services which we offer) tend to be available much sooner and can go on as long as is needed however they can be expensive longer term compared to services you could access through the NHS. Remember though the price often (but not always) reflects experience levels so the cheapest therapist may not always be the best.
If you’d like to book an appointment with any of our Chiswick based counsellors, psychotherapists or hypnotherapists, please visit our “Find a Therapist” page. Alternatively for general enquiries, please contact our lead therapist and practice manager Gareth Sammer.