Counselling and psychotherapy are inter-changable terms but can be loosely defined by the length and depth of the work. Counselling can be seen as short-term, goal orientated work where clients wish to focus on a specific, current issue and this will usually involve using Cognitive Behavioural Therapy. Psychotherapy is more long-term work which aims to explore childhood experiences and unconscious processes from past relationships in order to try to understand why certain behaviours keep happening. However, it is important to note that short-term work can often start to uncover deep-rooted patterns and a qualified therapist who is trained in both approaches will be able to support a client's evolving needs.

The important thing is that therapy provides an opportunity to talk in private about those difficult thoughts or feelings you might be having, in a way that might be difficult to do so with friends or family. When difficult thoughts and emotions are suppressed, they often come out in other ways, affecting mental or physical health, or both. It is well known that there can be such a huge sense of relief when sharing something extremely distressing that may well have been bottled up inside for days, months, or even years. Helping you to understand why you are feeling or behaving in a certain way usually leads to more effective ways of coping, enabling you to have greater control of your life.

However, it is crucial that you find the right therapist and form the right relationship in order to fully support you in this process. Often, it is a damaging relationship that is at the core of someone's pain and therefore it needs a healing relationship to help repair that damage.