“Do I need counselling or psychotherapy?” is a question clients sometimes ask.  The British Psychological Society defines counselling as a system intended to 'help people improve their sense of wellbeing, alleviate their distress, resolve their crises and increase their ability to solve problems and make decisions for themselves', while "psychotherapy might be more helpful for psychological problems that have built up over years rather than at a time of crisis or distress".

Counselling and psychotherapy are considered to be umbrella terms to cover a range of talking therapies delivered by trained practitioners (BACP 2011) and the difference between the two usually considered in terms of the length of time ie whether the work is short or long term.