Explore BrainMass

Mental Health Counselling and Psychotherapy

What makes counselling different from psychotherapy?

Please provide examples of counselling and psychotherapy.

Why is this differentiation essential?

Please support your answers with at least one scholarly resource in APA format.

Solution Preview

What makes counseling different from psychotherapy or what is the difference between these two?

Counseling - (Schimelpfening, 2013)

- Technically, the word counselor means "advisor" and involves many types of situations including therapeutic, financial planning, spiritual guidance and many other types.
- Mainly focuses on advice giving and the immediate treatment of presenting behaviors.
- It is a short term solution that is intended to alleviate the presenting issues for the client but does not center on exploring the "whys" of the behavior or thoughts. It is also generally more focused on behavioral correction than thought process exploration.
- "It often targets a particular symptom or problematic situation and offers suggestions and advice for dealing with it" (para 1).
- Requires less training and skill than other forms of therapy (such as psychotherapy).
- Counselors are considered "generalists" in that they can treat many different symptoms and disorders

Psychotherapy - (Medical News Today, 2009)

- "Psychotherapy consists of a series of techniques for treating mental health, emotional and some psychiatric disorders" (para 1).
- It holds the belief that by assisting the client with talking through their current and past concerns, issues and conditions, the client can identify their feelings, change their ways of thinking and learn new coping mechanisms.
- It is commonly used for conditions or psychological problems that have taken several years to develop.
- ...

Solution Summary

A discussion regarding counseling verses psychotherapy including differences and examples using a relationship scenario and a child disrupting at school as a scenario to illustrate the two practices. Also a discussion regarding why the differentiation between the two practices is important. 878 words, 2 references.