Counselling vs. Psychotherapy

Which Path is Right for You?

When you look for support, you will often see the words Counselling and Psychotherapy used together. While both are gentle, supportive forms of talk therapy, they work in different ways.

Think of counselling as navigating the stormy weather on the surface of the ocean, while psychotherapy is exploring the deep currents underneath.

Here is an overview of how they differ so you can choose the path that best fits your journey.

Counselling: Finding Anchor in the Storm (Short-Term & Practical)

Counselling focuses on the here and now. It is designed to help you get through a specific, immediate challenge or life change. We work together to find practical tools, sort through your feelings, and build coping skills.

• Best for: Grief, relationship breakups, workplace stress, or adjusting to a major life shift.
• The Experience: Action-oriented, problem-solving, and focused on immediate relief.

Psychotherapy: Understanding the Deeper Currents (Longer-Term & Transformational)

Psychotherapy takes a deeper look at the underlying patterns of your life. If you feel “stuck” in the same old loops, psychotherapy helps you uncover why. We gently explore your past experiences, childhood conditioning, and subconscious habits to heal the root cause of your pain.

• Best for: Childhood trauma, recurring relationship issues, feelings of emptiness, or a desire for deep personal growth.
• The Experience: Reflective, soulful, and focused on lasting inner transformation.

Moving from Overwhelm to Ease | Two Different Approaches

To show you how these two styles work, let’s look at a common issue: overwhelming stress at work. Depending on what you need right now, we can approach this challenge through a counselling lens or a psychotherapy lens.

A Counselling Exercise: The “Circle of Control”

This practical exercise helps you manage your current daily stress by organising your thoughts and taking immediate action.

1. Draw Two Circles: On a blank sheet of paper, draw a large circle. Inside it, draw a smaller circle.
2. Outside the Circle: In the outer area, write down everything causing you work stress that you cannot change today (e.g., your boss’s mood, company budget cuts, the economy). We acknowledge these, but we practice letting them go.
3. Inside the Circle: In the inner circle, write down what you can control (e.g., when you take your lunch break, setting a boundary around evening emails, how you speak to yourself).
4. The Action: We pick one small thing inside your inner circle to action today. This shifts your brain out of panic mode and gives you back your power.

A Psychotherapy Exercise: Meeting the “Anxious Inner Child”

This deep, experiential exercise goes beneath the surface to explore where your modern workplace anxiety actually comes from.

1. Somatic Settling: We close our eyes and take a few slow, deep breaths. I invite you to notice where the work stress lives in your body right now (perhaps a tight chest or a heavy stomach).
2. Tracking the Feeling: We gently follow that physical feeling backward in time. I will ask you: “When is the very first time in your life you remember feeling this exact same tightness and fear of getting into trouble?”
3. The Discovery: Often, a memory surfaces—perhaps a memory of a strict parent, or a time you felt rejected at school. We realise that your current boss has accidentally triggered a very old wound.
4. The Healing: We use chair work or visualisation to speak directly to that younger part of you. We reassure them that they are safe now. By healing the old memory, the modern work stress naturally loses its grip on you.

About Susan

Welcome and I am glad you are here!

My training uniquely blends traditional psychological science, practical counselling, and deep transpersonal psychotherapy to care for your whole being. I hold a Bachelor of Arts from Victoria University alongside a Diploma of Counselling. To work with the deeper layers of the human experience, I also earned an Advanced Diploma of Transpersonal Counselling from the Ikon Institute. This specialised background allows me to support you on two distinct levels. On the surface, I use practical counselling tools to help you navigate immediate life storms and stressful changes. Beneath the surface, my deep psychotherapeutic training will help you to safely uncover old patterns, explore your inner world, and create lasting, soulful transformation.