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First Posted on June 22, 2011 by alisonball

Many people have expressed their views regarding similarities and differences between individual counselling and individual psychotherapy.

So I would like to share my thoughts in this matter as well.
My thoughts are based on my clinical experiences working with both modalities. For me it is important to know the differences between the two because that determines what the client needs from me, what is possible to achieve in the work and what are the limitations of the work.

When I get the sense that I can work from within the relationship between the client and myself, when I can connect the past – what happened in the life of the client there and then, – with their present life in the outside world – what is happening in the here and now between that client and myself, then I have a sense that I am engaging in psychotherapy. In a sense the client is letting me into deeper places and levels in their being. These experiences can be life changing.

However not everyone wants life changing experiences, needs them, or is capable to delve into the deeper recesses of their selves. These clients come with a presenting problem or issue that they want to resolve, they want something from me that will make it possible to handle or resolve that issue.

For example, a client tells me that he had always been treated unfairly or feels that he had always been taken advantage of.
I then think about what the client has just said and wondering in myself whether the client feels that this treatment is happening with other people in his life in the present and also maybe with me in the room.

I may then ask: “and how is this playing out between you and me” or “maybe you are telling me that I treat you unfairly”. When the client can relate to this question and find the connection between the past experience and how it resonates in the present with me, than I have a sense that we are engaging in psychotherapy.

A question like this becomes irrelevant even impossible to ask when I am engaged in counselling therapy.