What is the difference between a counsellor and a psychotherapist?

A question I am often asked at Alithea is, ‘What is the difference between a counsellor and a psychotherapist?’ When people first enquire about sessions, it is common for them to share they don’t know what they need.  Some even suggest their confusion has held them back from making contact. It’s reassuring to hear they are not alone,

One way of understanding the distinction between these two forms of therapy is that Counselling is more focused on Problem Resolution and Psychotherapy more focused on Understanding Oneself. But like many things these definitions really only provide a technical way of describing something that in the real world, in the therapy room, takes on its own meaning.

My mentor and teacher Dr Traill Dowie explains it like this: “When people come to further understand themselves, they come to understand how that ‘problem’ came to exist in the place, what it relates to and (almost always) what they need to do about it.”  

I feel this is fabulous working definition and an insightful way to understand these ideas and how they apply to you.  While many people come and sit in the chair with a ‘problem’ to solve in a Counselling sense, the unravelling of that problem will most often lead to a deeper understanding of the self – that is Psychotherapy. In fact, these two concepts are naturally entwined and need one another!

It is not a ‘this or that’ approach. In fact, a skilled therapist, no matter what label they apply to themselves, will seamlessly work within these concepts and shape each therapy session to meet you where you are, with what you need most.   What does this mean?   A skilled therapist has a range of tools  and approaches to draw on built up over many years of practice and you will benefit from them all.

So don’t be put off by labels and limiting definitions. Choose a therapist that you relate to and start where you are.

That is my way and that is the Alithea Way.

Christina Ramo