Is there a difference between counselling and psychotherapy?

Shortest answer: no. 

Short answer: it depends who you ask. 

Longer answer: 

Firstly, from a regulatory standpoint in the UK - you can call youself either. The titles are not (currently) protected.

Secondly, however, there is a code of ethics among counsellors and psychotherapists to be members of professional bodies. In the UK, counsellors that do the standard 3 year training (a level 3 counselling certificate and a level 4 counselling training diploma) are likely to be with the BACP, NCPS or ACC. These guys can call themselves, what they like! Just like anyone who is not trained. They tend to agree with Carl R. Rogers, the founding father of the Person-Centred Aproach that counselling and psychotherapy are the same:

"There has been a tendancy to use the term counselling for more casual and superficial interviews, and the reserve the term psychotherapy for more intensive and long continued contacts directed toward deeper reorganization of the personality. While there may be some reason for this distinction, it is also plain that the most intensive and successful counselling is indistinguishable from intensive and successful psychotherapy." 

(Rogers, 1961)

So why use different words if the two are 'indistinguishable'? Well, according to Proctor (2017, pp. 107), Rogers, as a non-medical doctor practicing in 1940s USA, was not allowed to use the term "therapy". Hence, he invented 'counselling'.

Back to the present day politics of labels.... Those therapists that do longer training courses (4 years or more) are likely to be a member of the UKCP and call themselves a psychotherapist. And then you have psychoanalysts (from the heritage of "sit on the couch and tell me about your dreams of your mother") who may be members of the British Psychoanalytic Council, and they may most likely call themselves psychotherapists or analysts.

 

 

The third difference, is what your therapist does with you as to whether you get counselling or psychotherapy, rather than their qualifications. If you go to have someone help you weigh up your options or a make a difficult decision, providing a non-judgemental sounding board and a safe space to explore your feelings and attitudes, that might be considered counselling.

Should you then wish to look into your personal history around your relationship with the issues you are bringing, it may tiurn into psychotherapy. In addition to providing a safe, non-judgemental space, the therapist is now likely to:

- explore relational patterns in your life that have and are still causing you issues

- challenge you in ways that feel safe and like "growth" 

- cause you to actually feel upset with, or hostile towards your therapist at times (while you explore these hidden depths of your belief system and work out 'what-belings-to-whom').

It needs to be said that psychotherapy providing lasting (positive) change is going to come with some emotional discomfort (it's not just about feeling better by the end of the session). However, the lasting benefits of this are expected to far far outweigh the temporary discomfort.

 

Others may have different opinions, these are just mine. 

References

Proctor, G. (2017) The dynamics of power in counselling and psychotherapy: Ethics, politics and practice. Monmouth: PCCS Books.

Rogers, C.R. (1961) On becoming a person: A therapist’s view of psychotherapy. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.