What is counselling and psychotherapy?

Counselling and psychotherapy, also referred to as the ‘talking therapies,’ occur as a therapeutic dialogue between client and therapist. This dialogue takes place in a confidential, warm, and nonjudgmental atmosphere. While the practice of counselling and psychotherapy are similar, counselling generally refers to short term work and focuses on one problem area. Psychotherapy is long term open-ended work which focuses on patterns of difficulties and may address many problem areas. Therapy refers to counselling or psychotherapy.