What are the different types of counselling or psychotherapy and does it matter?
There are many different types of counselling and psychotherapy.
Examples of types available in the UK, include but are not limited to:
Psychodynamic therapy or psychoanalytic therapy.
For example, psychoanalysis.
Humanistic based therapies.
For example, person-centred therapy.
Arts based therapies.
For example, drama therapy.
Cognitive and behavioural therapies.
For example, CBT.
There are differences between these different forms of therapy.
Psychoanalysis works with unconscious feelings, thoughts, and conflicts.
You may be invited to lay on a couch and encouraged to say whatever comes into your mind without
censoring anything.
The therapist will interpret what you are saying and is there to help you to discover
hidden patterns and meanings.
You may gain insight into your behaviours and problems that you are experiencing.
Psychanalysis provides a space for focusing on past traumas and events that may have been
forgotten about, linking these to what you are presently experiencing.
For example, by connecting past and present this can help you make sense of what is having
a negative impact on your relationships in the present and can inform relationships for
the future.
All of this takes time and could last from around 1 year up to around 7 or even longer.
Person-centred therapists aim to create an environment where you experience them as warm,
empathically understanding, and genuine.
Rather than giving you advice, the counsellor considers you as the expert in your life and
you choose the direction that therapy takes.
This may feel a strange at first, especially for those who expect their therapist to guide
them and provide answers but having the therapist be alongside you and responding on an equal
level rather than adopting the role of expert may enable you to find the answers within
yourself and build on this.
Person-centred therapists aim to maintain a non-judgemental stance to whatever you bring
to the sessions.
As you experience these conditions you may feel better able to understand and connect
with your own feelings and inner values.
Your sense of self-worth may increase and as you explore your feelings, beliefs, worldview,
and what is troubling you you may become more self-aware and identify strengths and resources
within yourself and in your life that you can use beyond therapy.
As a person-centred therapist myself, I have witnessed clients grow during therapy and
go on to experience fulfilling moments in their lives.
Drama Therapists facilitate a space where you can explore emotions through the medium
of drama.
They will encourage you to explore what you are hoping to achieve and evaluate your needs.
You may use equipment, materials, and props such as puppets and masks and sessions can
involve improvisations, story, role play, mime, movement, acting out situations from
the past, and script work.
Feelings may be experienced that you may not usually allow yourself to feel.
This experience can be cathartic, cleansing, releasing, increase self-esteem, confidence,
and help you to develop communication skills.
Cognitive behavioural therapists help you to identify negative thought patterns and
behaviour by exploring your thoughts, feelings, and behaviours by working through exercises.
You may focus on what is happening in present day life or focus on past experiences and
the effects of them on you.
Therapists may encourage you to complete activities at home such as completing worksheets and
keeping a diary.
This work may continue after the therapy sessions have ended.
The therapist takes an active role in showing you ways in which you can deal with or manage
problems by teaching you coping skills.
CBT aims to retrain or rewire your brain so that you feel less overwhelmed.
As problems are broken down into smaller parts, they may become more easier to manage.
Through CBT, changes in the way you think may result in a positive effect on the way
you feel and behave.
Some therapists offer a combination of different forms of counselling.
So, there are differences between the forms of counselling and psychotherapy and what
works for some people may not work for others.
This could be due to various reasons, but it may be that you naturally respond better
to one form of therapy over others.
Therefore, it may matter what type of therapy you access.
Thank you, take care.