The abusive spouse may have been a victim of abuse as a child, abused in a
relationship themselves or even have been a witness to abuse. The counselor
would analyze each act and try to link it to something in the unconscious past.
Length of treatment also differs between counseling and psychotherapy.
Counseling is shorter in duration than psychotherapy. The time spent in
counseling is determined by goals set by the client and the counselor. Once
these goals are met the client should then be able to go back on their own.
Psychotherapy tends to last a while longer. Sessions range from two to five
years. Psychotherapy is more of a comprehensive re-education of the client. The
intensity and length of therapy depends on how well the client can deal with all
of the new found information. It could take quite sometime for the client to be
able to live with these feelings which originated in past experiences which are
usually hurtful ones. A -psychotherapists also needs time to modify all existing
defenses. The setting of treatment also differs between counseling and
psychotherapy. A counseling session usually takes place in a non medical setting
such as an office. Psychotherapy is the term used more in a medical setting such
as a clinic or hospital. Another difference between counseling and psychotherapy
has to do with transference. Brammer and Shostrom (1977) state, The counselor
develops a close personal relationship with the client, but he does not
encourage or allow strong transference feelings as does the psychotherapist
(p.223). The counselor tends to find this transference as interfering with his
or her counseling effectiveness. A psychotherapist might feel that this
transference is helpful and the client may be able to see what he is trying to
do with the therapist relationship. A counselor may look at transference as
manifestations in an incomplete growing up process(Brammer & Shostrom 1977),
where the psychotherapist interprets these transference feelings as an
unconscious nature of feelings. Resistance is another area of counseling and
psychotherapy that tends to differ. Counselors see resistance as something that
opposes or goes against problem solving.
A counselor tries to reduce this as much ass possible. A psychotherapist on
the other hand finds resistance to be very important. If the therapist can
understand the clients resistance, he can then understand how to help the client
change his or her personality. Similarities in counseling and psychotherapy
While there are clearly many differences between the counseling approach and
psychotherapy, there are some similarities between the two. First, each of these
are similar in the sense that each client brings with them the assets, skills,
strengths and possibilities needed with them to therapy. Secondly, counseling
and psychotherapy are similar in the way that they both use an eclectic
approach. The counselors and therapists do not have only one technique, they
borrow from all different techniques. Arbuckle argues that counseling and
psychotherapy are in all essential respects identical (1967, p.144) He states
that the nature of the relationship which is considered basic in counseling and
psychotherapy are identical. Secondly, Arbuckle says that the process of
counseling cannot be distinguished from the process of psychotherapy. Third of
all he feels that the methods or techniques are identical. Arbuckle lastly
states in the matter of goals and or outcomes there may appear to be differences
but no distinction is possible. One major similarity between counseling and
psychotherapy are the elements which build a person's personality. Each of these
processes deal with attitudes, feelings, interests, goals, self esteem and
related behaviors are all which are affected through counseling and
psychotherapy. Summary and Conclusion One can see from the material provided
that there are several differences between counseling and psychotherapy. The
biggest difference in my opinion is the time factor/ focus faced in each of
these approaches. Counseling primarily deals with reality situations versus the
unconscious past focus of psychotherapy. Secondly counseling has been described
as helping one to develop competencies in coping with life situations where as
psychotherapy is a re organization of one's whole personality. Finally a last
distinction is that the counselor deals with life adjustment problems while the
psychotherapist deals with past unresolved issues from the family of origin.
While there are many distinguishing differences between counseling and
psychotherapy, there are some aspects that do spill over into each other. As one
can see by the graph provided (see figure. 1.1) there is a section where the two
approaches cross paths. One must definitely take a close look at counseling and
psychotherapy to distinguish whether or not there is a difference between the
two approaches. I found this to be a very confusing topic at times. Just when I
thought I had completely grasped a concept I would run across authors such as
Arbuckle who speaks of the fact that one can not distinguish counseling from
psychotherapy. Luckily, I researched part of this topic using my class notes, to
my advantage the lecture on June 15, 1995 discussed the differences between
counseling and psychotherapy. After reading these notes I realized that I was
right on track and there is a difference between counseling and psychotherapy
Bibliography
Arbuckle, D. S. (1967). Counseling and Psychotherapy: An Overview. New York:
McGraw Hill. Bettelheim, B. & Rosenfeld, A. (1993). The Art of the
Obvious...Developing Insight For Psychotherapy and Everyday Life. New York:
Knopf. Brammer, L . & Shostrom, E. (1977). Theraputic Psychology: Fundamentals
of Counseling and Psychotherapy Third Edition. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice
Hall. Rogers, C. (1951). Client Centered Therapy. New York: Houghton Mifflin.
Shostrom, E. (1967). Man the Manipulator. Nashville, Tennessee: Abingdon Press.
Words: 1890
