Psychotherapy
An interpersonal, relational intervention used by trained psychotherapists to help clients deal with a wide-range of mental and emotional problems. Typically, therapy takes on the overall focus of increasing one’s sense of well-being and reducing subjective discomforting experiences and thoughts. There are a wide range of techniques used in psychotherapy based on experiential relationship building, dialogue, communication and behavior change. These techniques are designed to improve the mental health of a client or to improve relationships (such as in a couple or family). Most forms of psychotherapy employ the use of spoken conversation (“talk therapy”) with the inclusion of specific therapeutic techniques. Some forms also use various other techniques of communication such as the written word, psychodrama or other expressive therapies. Psychotherapy occurs within a structured encounter between a trained therapist and client(s). Therapy is generally used to respond to a variety of specific or non-specific manifestations of clinically-diagnosable problems or crises. Treatment of everyday problems, by contrast, is often referred to as “counseling” though this term is often used interchangeably with “psychotherapy.”