There is a poetic soulful part in all of us, and there is a part just wanting to get along with fewer problems, and a more simple, comfortable life.
Counselling helps us with problem-solving and managing better.
Psychotherapy helps us with our soulful, deeper, complicated aspects of being human. The brilliant, but difficult to live with parts of ourselves.
The two are on a spectrum and there can be much co-mingling between them depending on the therapist/counsellor.
If you are keen to dive into the more official versions you can always knock yourself out on Google/AI where there is lots of helpful explanations and definitons.
For the purposes of this muse though I think of counselling as a more linear process: where I listen closely to the problem you are presenting. Then we look at what is happening within your problem, and the reactions you are having to it. We then typically pause, zoom out, digest, reflect and connect with what resources internal/external might be available to you, and tailor a plan to deal with or manage the problem better.
Psychotherapy can incorporate the above, but the process is more labyrinth like than linear. Have you ever walked a labyrinth? There is something strangely re-assuring in the process. When we walk a Labyrinth we circle, wending and winding our way towards the centre, then back out again, and then back to the centre. The process begins on the outer and ends up in the centre.
Labyrinth patterns are present in many ancient cultures. There is a recognition that our journeys in life are often like this. After all who ever had a compelling vision or goal and experienced a straight forward, obstacle free path towards it!?
Most of us, most of the time want a short, simple, direct, easy solution to our problems so they can be fixed and go away!
BUT… If you haven’t already, by the time you’ve been an adult for a while (i.e. more responsible for your own problems) you realise it’s rarely like this. Many problems have a way of circling around and repeating in our lives.
Psychotherapy enables our problems to be more of an opportunity for encountering ourselves, our psyches. It’s not always comfortable. Often it’s uncomfortable initially, but the process leads to more wholeness, a bigger sense of ourselves, more connection to the mystery of the mystery at our core, more sense of gravitas within ourselves, deeper self knowledge and self acceptance.
There is a developing, ongoing, deeper sense of who we are without ever completing. There are always more corners to go around. Unofficially, there is no end point. This can be a blessing and a curse…. Always more to discover (never bored) and… always more to unfold.
The good news is it is not a constant treadmill, nor is it like drinking from the firehose of endless information and media. Our psyche’s, tumultuous at times, also crave periods of natural respite and integration. As we embrace our natural rhythms of rise and fall we develop comfort with discomfort, willingness to sit with unknowing and uncertainty, and a greater valuing for things cultivated, not bought.