Abstract
Abstract According to statistical forecasts in modern societies is trend of mental disorders growth, especially anxiety and depression. At the same time there will be probably present higher demands for professional psychosocial support. Psychotherapy and counselling as talking interventions are part of the psychosocial support, needed when people can’t resolve their (mental) problems by themselves. The article deals with the question about differneces between those two professions. Are those differences artificial, is there any argumented facts in favour of different proponents? For this purpose we have examined different definitions of counselling and psychotherapy, training standards, techniques and skills, ethical standards, treatment outcomes, depth of treatment and clients expiriences.
Highlights
Counselling and psychotherapy, as talking interventions, are ways of responding to a wide range of human needs
Possible ways of distinguishing counselling from psychotherapy Some ways of distinguishing counselling from psychotherapy include: (1) psychotherapy focuses on personality change of some sort, while counselling focuses on helping clients use existing resources for coping with life better, (2) they are the same qualitatively, but differ only quantitatively in that, therapists listen more and engage in less informing, advising and explaining than counsellors, and (3) psychotherapy deals with more severe disturbance and is more medical term than counselling (Corsini 2008)
When we are talking about professional counselling and psychotherapy within the same approach there is no doubt that both professions arise from the same philosophical and theoretical frames
Summary
Counselling and psychotherapy, as talking interventions, are ways of responding to a wide range of human needs. Counselling and psychotherapy provide opportunities for those seeking help to work towards ways of living in more satisfying and resourceful ways. Counselling and psychotherapy have developed in order to respond to modern circumstances. They are living practices which are open to change and which evolve in response to changing needs. Today professional counselling encompasses within its practice clinicians who still focus on the avoidance of problems and the promotion of growth, but the profession is much more than that. Psychotherapy has focused on serious problems associated with intrapsychic, internal, and personal issues and conflicts. It has dealt with the recovery of adequacy (Casey 1996). The similarities in the counselling and psychotherapy processes often overlap (Gladding 2014)
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