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therapist/counsellor?
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
What is the difference between a counsellor and a therapist?
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Maybe it has something to do with the length of support offered? I would say that counsellors offer short term help and therapist long term support.
I could be completely wrong on that though!
atleast thats what i thought?
a counsellor either has a degree in counselling or a postrgad certificate or other qualification in counselling;
a psychotherapist has a PhD in clinical psychology.
a counsellor is someone to talk to; they are there to help you talk through what is worrying you whilst offering suggestions as to what you could do to feel better. a psychotherapist uses one of the main approaches to psychology (mainly behavioural, cognitive or psychodynamic or a combination) to work out what the underlying causes of your difficulties are, for example trauma, illogical thought processes or reinforcement of disordered behaviours. they won't just listen to you, they will concentrate on actively steering you to change. generally, therapy is more hard work for the patient.
not really, unless the therapist is a medic also providing psychotherapy, but that's not too common. therpists often have a better knowledge of medications though and can make recommendations to doctors about what might be the best one.
Psycho - mental, emotional, thoughts.
Physio - your physical body.
Cardio - the heart.
etc
Counsellor - someone impartial to unburden it all to and maybe suggest treatments. Though some do some therapies too.
worried about what?
no, not at all. it just means that the help will be a bit different, they'll probably do a few assessments before getting on with the actual therapy which can be a bit daunting sometimes but it's nothing to worry about. therapy can be upsetting sometimes if they tap into something that really bothers you, generally they think it's better to have your emotions out in the open and work through them, which can sometimes mean you going home more distressed than when you got there, but it's usually good for you in the long-term. you'll probably find therapy generally more hard work and more emotionally draining than counselling, but it's there to help you and make you better. go into it with an open mind and see what happens.