It is true that the two are very closely allied and indeed a therapeutic relationship may move between a more counselling approach and a more psychotherapeutic approach at different stages, or remain clearly either one or the other.

It is often the case that counselling focuses more on present day issues and problems and may even offer suggestions and strategies, whereas psychotherapy will usually be looking at the underlying causes of present unhappiness and attempting to understand how they came about.

It is sometimes less daunting to start with a few sessions of a more counselling type approach in order to get used to the therapeutic alliance and see whether “going back” into early life experience is going to be desirable or useful. I will often offer six or so sessions of a more counselling-based approach if you are new to the whole idea of this kind of work. This may then lead to a decision on both sides to enter into a more long-term, deeper process of psychotherapy. However, life is rarely neat and we may also decide to go straight for a psychotherapy approach.  

There are some differences in the contract between myself and the client depending on whether we are operating within a counselling contract or a psychotherapeutic one. This is because deep work often brings up difficult feelings and it is important that the client feels well-held in the structure of their therapy in order to be able to trust the process which is unfolding. The fees, however, remain the same whichever approach is being used.

The practical differences are set out on my Terms and Conditions page and will be discussed with you at the initial consultation.