What kind of counselling or psychotherapy do I need?
The world of psychological therapy is a minefield of acronyms: CBT, CFT, ACT, EMDR and on and on. It can be difficult for someone new to decide what is right for them. In this short article, we aim to answer a few of the most burning questions.
What is the difference between counselling and psychotherapy, and how does psychology fit in?
You will often find online guides suggesting that psychotherapy is longer-term and deals with deeper issues, whereas counselling is more short-term and focused on the present moment, but in reality there is so much crossover between the two that the terms are fairly meaningless on their own.
Whether a practitioner uses one term or another often depends on which route they took to qualification. In the UK, counsellors tend to have diploma or degree level training, whereas psychotherapists tend to have postgraduate training and often specialise in one or more types of therapy.
We at Open Door Psychology have taken a different route – we are psychologists, which means that we hold a doctoral-level qualification and are registered with the same regulator that oversees medical doctors. We have training in methods commonly found in both psychotherapy and counselling, allowing us to draw on a wide range of experience depending on what a person needs.
What are the different types of therapy?
There are truly hundreds of types of therapy out there in the world, with varying degrees of evidence to back them up. The most common approaches can be split into three main camps: humanistic therapies, cognitive behavioural therapies, and psychodynamic or psychoanalytic therapies.
1) Humanistic therapies put an emphasis on the therapeutic relationship, focusing on building trust, empathy and a mutual understanding led by the client and facilitated by careful questioning from the therapist. The leading type of therapy here is Person-Centred Therapy (PCT).
2) Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) focuses on breaking down experiences into their component parts: thoughts, emotions, body sensations and behaviours, and how they interact with each other. CBT aims to change patterns of behaviour to achieve a certain outcome. There are many types of issue-specific CBT and the school also includes so-called “third-wave” approaches like Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Compassion-Focused Therapy (CFT).
3) Psychodynamic and Psychoanalytic approaches tend to be longer-term therapies that focus on how early life experiences, particularly those in childhood, shape our present-day relationships and our behaviour, whether inside or outside our conscious awareness.
The reality is that almost all practitioners integrate different approaches in their work, rather than using one at a time.
Ok, so which one do I need?
That depends largely on what you prefer. Some clients like to take a more explorative, collaborative approach and want a humanistic psychologist who will listen and reflect back what they have heard while the client ultimately comes to their own conclusions. Others prefer a more directed, structured approach like CBT, focused on specific goals and practical steps. In reality, most people want a mix.
At Open Door Psychology, we believe that there is always more than one way to reach a goal, and our training gives us expertise in a range of humanistic and CBT approaches. We are also able to offer Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR) as a specialist approach for psychological trauma. We will always be transparent about the methods we are using, and prioritise those that are grounded in evidence. You don’t need to decide for yourself what type of therapy you need before reaching out – give us a call or send us an email and we can work it out together.