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How does Counseling differ from Psychotherapy
Career counseling is another example. Issues that might prompt a person to seek this type of counseling include: a chance for advancement that requires a move, a change to a new career, or a return to college for additional education. In each of these cases the client has a focused issue and needs help sorting out his or her thoughts and feelings. Besides resolving the immediate question, counseling could bring into focus underlying issues such as repressed resentments, unrealistic expectations, difficulties in making a decision, or fears of being exposed or of failing. While the client could gain a better understanding of such issues, and even be able to make better decisions, changes to his or her character or emotional reactions would require a shift from counseling to psychotherapy. Marriage counseling is probably the most well known form of counseling. Here a couple is trying to resolve relationship issues. People use this type of counseling to gain clarity regarding their emotional reactions, and to develop an ability to more clearly express their thoughts and feelings. They are also able to explore what they want and what they are willing to accept. Sometimes underlying problems such as a loss of self (independence) in a close relationship, fear of abandonment, or difficulties with intimacy come into focus. Psychological work on such issues moves the process from counseling (the resolution of specific problems) to psychotherapy.
Dynamic psychotherapy involves an exploration of the interplay between one's thoughts, feelings, and behaviors (or ways of being in the world). This interplay is not only explored as it is manifested in everyday life, but also, as it is experienced in relation to the therapist. One result is an uncovering of attitudes and feelings that were automatic and out of awareness. Two examples of the experiential awareness one might obtain with this kind of uncovering are 1) one's contempt for others and how contempt is used to ward off feelings of neediness, or 2) how intellectualization of experience is used to avoid anxiety. This type of psychotherapy takes longer than counseling. It often involves some disorientation and/or the experience of painful affect. Finally, when successful, a person gains flexibility in his or her emotional and behavioral responses. That is, the person has the option of changing automatic responses that have limited his or her ability to find meaning and pleasure in life. It is through this uncovering and explorative process that one gains a sense of confidence, self-acceptance and a greater capacity for both self-awareness and intimacy. This is the form of psychotherapy provided by the Saturday Center. Cognitive-Behavioral therapy lies somewhere between the above two types of psychological intervention. It focuses on the elimination of symptoms much as counseling focuses on resolution of a problem. Attention is paid to the client's thoughts and feelings, but they are responded to directly as opposed to treating them as manifestations of underlying mental processes. Such therapy is especially successful with simple phobias, obsessive thoughts, and some forms of anxiety and depression. For instance, a victim of assault and who is having a post-traumatic stress reaction could greatly benefit from such treatment. On the other hand, it might have little effect when such an assault releases a flood of emotional reactions related to abuse and loss that had occurred during childhood. In such circumstances, a dynamic therapy that addresses underlying mental processes could be more helpful. Other therapies include Gestalt therapy, EMDR which seems to be effective in decreasing highly emotional responses to the memory of traumatic experiences, and Hypnotherapy. None of these therapies are practiced by Saturday Center therapists. |