The Parable of the Two Teachers
download video
First, there are erroneous, albeit common, points of view. It is wrong to think that counseling differs from psychotherapy in that counseling is short-term and psychotherapy involves long-term work. This is not true. Counseling may consist of a series of consultations as needed, on the other hand, and psychotherapy may be short, one-time.
It is true, however, that, statistically, psychotherapeutic work usually lasts somewhat longer than psychological counseling. But the point here, apparently, is that counseling is more effective, leads to results faster.
It is also incorrect to say that psychotherapy focuses on more severe cases and counseling deals with milder cases. This is not true. A psychotherapist, for example, treats mild insomnia after the stress of a horror movie. CURES. Although there is no hard case here. On the other hand, if a consultant analyzes how a person can get out of terrible debts, protect himself from prison (with whom and how to talk and settle things) and at the same time save a family, this is a very difficult, difficult case. But there is no one and nothing to treat here, this is not psychotherapy, but counseling.
At the same time, it is true that the psychotherapist usually works with more difficult people: people with problematic conditions who are not disposed to productive work.
The main differences between psychotherapy (psychotherapeutic counseling) and psychological counseling can be presented in the following table.
Decision making in counseling and psychotherapy
If a person needs to make a decision, then at the consultation, with the help of a consultant, he weighs all the pros and cons, takes into account the consultant’s life experience and consciously makes his own decision. If a woman needs to make a decision, but she can’t do it in any way and feels helpless, she comes to a therapist for psychotherapy. This is a different procedure. Here the consultant helps the woman to find any possible (not necessarily optimal) solution, creates her confidence that this is her decision and pumps up her resource, giving her a sense of the correctness of this decision. See →
Do you need counseling or psychotherapy?
It is unacceptable when, instead of consulting, psychotherapy is actually imposed on a client, just as it is clearly not enough and simply bypassed when a psychologist gives advice to a patient who really needs psychotherapeutic help. When a client calls and asks for a consultation, be sure to clarify whether he needs a consultation or psychotherapy. At the same time, of course, the clients themselves do not know this and even usually do not understand what the question is about, but in the process of clarification, the psychologist can understand and feel what the client really needs.