As an integrative service that tailor our approach to each individual’s needs, when a person comes to see one of our therapists, it can be difficult to pinpoint at the outset exactly what a person needs.
Counselling tends to be a more short term approach focussed on a particular presenting issue. For example it may be a situation such as bullying at work, a difficulty in a family relationship, a bereavement or loss, a destructive habit that you want to work on changing, life transitions, stress, anxiety, low mood.
What is counselling?
Counselling is a professional and supportive process designed to help individuals navigate personal challenges, improve emotional well-being, and achieve greater self-awareness, make decisions and examine choices. A counsellor provides a safe, non-judgmental space for clients to express their thoughts, feelings, and concerns. Counselling can address a wide range of issues, including stress, anxiety, depression, relationship difficulties, grief, loss and life transitions. By using evidence-based techniques and compassionate listening, we work collaboratively with clients to develop healthier coping strategies, enhance communication skills, and foster personal growth.
The counsellor is there to listen, understand and assist with the process. Often the process of simply unburdening yourself to someone who is interested but not involved can be an incredible healing experience in itself.
Understanding the issues and process your reactions to them enables you to then work with the counsellor to move forward productively.
When Counselling morphs into Psychotherapy
However upon further exploration whatever is happening in the present for you can sometimes become a more complex issue with needs a longer-term focus. It may be that an issue that has arisen now has raised related issues such as core beliefs from the past, a relationship issue which is linked to similar emotions from past experiences which may have created a response that is disproportional in the present. Whilst counselling involves a therapeutic relationship, psychotherapy approaches place emphasis on in-depth relationship where emphasis is on the client feeling safe in the therapeutic space, where triggers of their current situation may have challenged this. Whilst professional boundaries need to be maintained, a process known as transference and counter transference can occur in the therapy room whereby the client is reacting to the therapist in a way that is influenced by their relationships with others from their past. Holding the therapeutic space of safety is paramount.
What is psychotherapy?
Psychotherapy also known as talk therapy is a type of treatment used to address mental health, emotional challenges, and behavioural problems that may well we linked to the past. The overall objectives may be similar as in counselling; for individuals improve their emotional well-being, develop healthy coping mechanisms, and work through to help reach personal potential. However deeper exploration of where and when the different parts of our behaviours, responses and even personality first formed will provide a fuller picture with more effective long term results. There are many forms of therapy contained under the umbrella of psychotherapy, and often a combination of approaches are most effective in helping you to understand and resolve the problem. At Mustard Therapy & Coaching for example, our therapists are training in hypnotherapy which can help keep all parts of your brain, nervous system and body online and communicating to fully understand and ultimately resolve problematic reactions to life and the people we interact with.
We are all individuals who have a different set of experiences and situations to encounter throughout our lives. Our reactions to these experiences are also unique. Much of who we are, what we are, what drives us and what motivates us is hidden from our everyday awareness. We build defence mechanisms to disguise the things we find difficult to cope with.
Psychotherapy seeks to treat the whole person.
The therapist will be someone independent from your situation and will be able to be objective, building a rapport to help you feel safe.
Psychotherapy can help you make sense of the emotions that are controlling you, and the experiences that trigger them, to help you understand and resolve the problem.
