Counseling vs Therapy
Life is not as perfect as what we expect it to be. Life, as they say, can be beautiful; it can be ugly. One truth about it is that living it alone is a challenge. Either life will control you or you control your life. Everyone has his or her choices. In problems bugging us, it’s the same. Either we surrender on it or we face it.
Counseling and therapy are forms of solutions when one cannot handle his or her personal problems. These people are trained enough for them to handle special situations that warrant professional counseling and therapy. However, what is the difference between counseling and therapy?
Counseling is generally giving advice. This only means that, in general, anyone can be a counselor since they are just on the side of giving advice. These can be in the form of education, finance, health, spiritual, or anything under the sun. Counseling, according to mental health classifications, is definitely a short course of therapy focusing on the behavioral aspects of humans. The focus of counseling is short-term and lighter problems.
Regarding therapy or psychotherapy, this is much longer than counseling for the fact that it targets longer or chronic psychological and emotional problems that people bear. The focus of therapy is generally the thought processes.
Counseling and therapy are generally two synonymous terms as they can be interchanged. A therapist can provide counseling and psychotherapy. However, a person who counsels called a counselor will depend on the degree he or she has received. Therapy involves a more difficult task to do compared to counseling. So the people conducting that can be psychiatrists, psychologists, or social workers.
Though counseling and therapy do not differ that much, they are still a form of intervention to those who are seeking solutions to their emotional and psychological problems. Without these people, we can’t function normally due to the problems we are facing and bearing. So these people providing counseling and therapy are of great help to us.
Summary:
1.Counseling is indicated for short-term and less-serious problems while therapy is indicated for long-term and much more chronic psychological and emotional problems.
2.Counseling is generally giving advice while in therapy there are more in-depth interventions.