FAQs

What is Psychotherapy & Counselling?

A: Both are talking therapies but generally, Counselling is concerned with a specific, contemporary issue such as bereavement, divorce, redundancy etc. Psychotherapy tends to look at longer standing issues and patterns of thinking, feeling and behaviour. It is broader in scope and sometimes longer in duration but there are common characteristics between the two practices.

A: Psychiatry is traditionally the diagnosis and treatment of mental illness and frequently involves drug therapy combined with talking therapy. Psychotherapy is talking therapy.

A: Psychoanalysis (or Analysis) is the same as Psychotherapy in as much as they are both types of talking therapy. Psychoanalysis, as created by Freud, predates psychotherapeutic systems such as Humanistic, Integrative, Existential, Behavioural and Cognitive, and focuses on the principle that much distress has been caused by events in early life of which we are no longer aware. Humanistic Psychotherapy, that I practice, has its focus more on the here and now and the past is addressed only if it is relevant to you.

A: Humanistic. It is an approach that tries to do justice to the whole person – mind, body and spirit. It represents a broad range of psychotherapeutic methods and each method recognises the self-healing capacities of the client. It is part of the humanistic belief that therapy can be a humanising process for both client and therapist and that the receptivity, emotional responsiveness and level of personal skill of the therapist is as relevant to the therapeutic process as their theoretical frame of reference or techniques they might employ. Healthy contact and communication are the basis of an authentic meeting of equals in the therapy relationship.
Q: What are your qualifications?
A: I am a fully accredited member of the British Association for Counselling & Psychotherapy. www.bacp.co.uk

A: Spectrum, a centre for Humanistic Psychotherapy in London. Spectrum is one of the most established training organisations committed specifically to the development of Humanistic Psychotherapy in the world. www.spectrumtherapy.co.uk

Amanda Falkson. Psychotherapycity.
Humanistic Psychotherapist & Counsellor in Central London.