“If you have a problem in your life – consider counselling. If your life is a problem – go for psychotherapy” (unknown)
Counselling & Psychotherapy are often interchangeable terms which doesn’t really help when you are trying to decipher which would be more beneficial for you. Add in the mix the different approaches such as person-centred, humanistic, psychodynamic, etc., and it’s enough to overwhelm you to the point you stop searching. Fundamentally, what they all have in common is they aim to help you improve & maintain good mental health, increase your self-awareness, find balance, have healthy relationships and live to your potential.
The Hill Counselling Practice has a team of associate therapists; you can have a browse through our associates and choose who you think would be a good fit because just like we all have different learning styles, some therapy approaches will suit you better than others. To help you decide, you'll find that all of our therapists offer a no-obligation consultation as a way of exploring what it is that brings you to therapy, whether therapy can help and to establish a sense of whether you'll ‘click’. Alternatively, select the ‘match me ‘ option and we will use our skills and expertise to match you with the therapist we believe is most suited to your needs.
Counselling
As a rule of thumb, counselling is typically suited to short-term work (6-12 sessions) and often focuses on a specific issue, e.g. workplace stress or difficulties in a relationship.
Psychotherapy
The term comes from the ancient Greek words psyche, which means 'soul' and therapia, 'to heal'.
Psychotherapy is likely to be a long-term process (12 sessions +) and through the course of building a relationship with your therapist you will explore aspects of your life, past and present, allowing you to acknowledge and address childhood experiences, issues and traumas, existential crises and to recognise patterns in behaviour and aspects of your life where you may wish to bring about change.
Therapy is a great way of getting to know ourselves with someone who is skilled at helping us to recognise our patterns, blindspots, to explore 'stuckness' and re-evaluate where we are at; it's a great tool for self-development.