Counselling and Psychotherapy are under the umbrella term of ‘talking therapies’.

Counselling offers an opportunity for a client to work toward living in a more satisfying and resourceful way. It can be concerned with addressing and resolving specific problems, decisions, coping with crisis, developing personal insight and understanding, working with feelings of inner conflict or improving an interpersonal relationship.

The counsellor will help clients begin to work on what is troubling them in ways that respect their values, personal resources, and capacity for authenticity and self-empowerment. Counselling gives people the opportunity to talk openly about their challenges and feelings, while being heard and understood at a very deep level. Counselling can to be short-term or longer term depending on your situation.                                

Psychotherapy is the intentional application of clinical methods and interpersonal stances taken from established approaches for the purpose of helping clients to modify their behavior, way of thinking, and emotions. Psychotherapy can also address the client’s personality traits that are causing difficulty. Because of this, psychotherapy can take longer than counselling, it is a longer term therapeutic relationship. Please note psychotherapy is not currently available.

·         Good training programs require future mental health professionals to complete a course of psychotherapy as part of their training in order to provide them with both the opportunity to experience being the client as well as to work on their own issues. Having been a client before allows me, as a therapist, to know what it’s like to be nervous about going into that first session, opening up and talking about personal information, and not knowing what to expect. I don’t just understand it theoretically. I understand what it feels like to be in my client’s shoes, because I’ve been there myself. I am a better therapist for having been a client.

·         Therapists getting therapy shows that we are not hypocrites and that we actually believe what we are telling you. I don’t know about you, I want my dentist to get regular dental care. I would definitely prefer for my primary care doctor to not be a smoker or an alcoholic. (Or if they are, that they are trying to address those addictions). Being willing and able to benefit from therapy when that would be helpful proves that we believe therapy is helpful. If it’s good enough for us, it’s good enough for you, and vice-versa.

·         Therapists benefit greatly from ongoing therapy not only when they are experiencing problems in their personal lives, just like anyone might, but they may need it in order to prevent professional burnout or “compassion fatigue.” While being a therapist is among one of the most rewarding professions, it has unique challenges and can take a toll on therapists and their family members unless plans for self-care are followed. People who go into the helping professions can benefit from working with therapists to assess their self-care strategies, their vulnerabilities to burnout or addiction, and to ensure that they have access to the same type of compassion, unconditional positive regard, and assistance in developing effective coping strategies that their clients receive from them.

www.forbes.com/sites/quora/2018/03/16/why-do-mental-health-professionals-need-therapy-themselves/?sh=11cfa3655ac3

For me, therapy is a way I can always gain perspective, ask for my therapists perspective ,how they would manage an issue or a problem.