What is psychological counselling and what is therapy?

Psychological counselling and therapy are processes. They bring understanding, depth, tools to help clients navigate better their worlds and most importantly, they enable a healthy relationship with the counsellor or therapist, where they can see how it is to be accepted, understood and supported. They bring learning and knowledge, and implicitly peace, most of the time, but there are no magical healing solutions. It means, that in order to increase self-awareness (1), understand the deep mechanisms of human functioning (2) and their own, and rewire neural pathways (3), it would take more than just a few sessions.

These processes are not for everyone. Not all people have the willingness and desire to go deep and work with them for a long time, some people just want support or validation, maybe a space to vent or get some quick perspectives and then return to the familiar way of being, hoping that the symptoms will not appear again.

A therapeutic or psychological counselling process means support, availability, connection to the psychic contents of the one who is in the process, loads of listening with the heart and soul, empathy and great rapport and communication skills. It also means that the counsellor or therapist is able to free himself or herself from personal biases or judgements and welcome the client’s information with a white canvas. A working day of a therapist or counsellor at the end means a low energy level, mental exhaustion most of the time due to the intensity of the required connection and concentration, permanent learning beyond just personal experience, a lot of reflection, need for solitude and great capacity to self-regulate.

Such a job, a vocation, brings great satisfaction, that of being useful and seeing the good in the other, unlocking inner wisdom and power in the clients and seeing them grow and develop or just ground and stabilize for a moment in safety. Therapists or counsellors use various techniques and approaches, tailored to individual needs, to support the process of personal growth, but ultimately the most important thing is not the method, but the relationship between the client and the therapist. The therapist does not impress with erudition or with too many personal self-disclosures, and neither with the false impression of an untouchable and perfectly balanced person. How can you understand someone else’s imbalance if you haven’t been there?

Therapists are people with similar lives who, thanks to in-depth scientific and empirical learning, have a greater understanding and methods to do their work well on different levels, cognitive, emotional, somatic, behavioural, spiritual or integrative. The goal of therapy is to help people better understand their thoughts, emotions, and behaviour, to understand their needs and the importance of a healthy environment in which to live, understanding how past still interferes with the present and to develop healthy ways of coping with difficulties for a better life and world.