Difference Between Depth Psychotherapy and Life Skills Therapy

     There is a distinct difference between deep psychotherapy and life skills teaching. Perhaps differently put: There is a distinct difference between psychotherapy and counseling. I don't want to demean the counseling profession, but I think that the difference in training and job placement show this.

     A counselor is entrusted with certain clients. These clients tend to have undramatic symptoms. By no means am I saying that counselors don't treat  clients that are very "ill." What I am suggesting, which is no less salacious, is that the level of therapy is not as deep as many clinical practitioners. I am not adding psychiatry here because, I have heard and experienced in a number of situations, their lack of actual therapeutic technique is large. Some practitioners, like psychologists, have the training to go deeper with a client and really help them to understand themselves at a much deeper level. It seems to me that most counselor operate at the level of psycho-education - one that does not demand the time or training required of depth-based therapies.
     As far as environmental differences are concerned, the situations that these two groups find themselves in can be very different. Counselors find themselves in many different situations ranging from D&A to family, etc. I think that clinical psychologists/psychotherapists ten to see either the worst of the worst (i.e. those that society has cast out) or relatively normal clients in outpatient/private/voluntary settings.