Metaforically speaking, psychoterapy can be seen as​

• A walk through the country - you choose the destination and pace, therapist knows the terrain

• Gardening - some of us inherit a green lawn, others a bush, but by patient watering, pruning (and sometimes fertilizing :) you can cultivate a garden, which offers both sun and shade, bears fruit and gives joy

• Mountaineering - you and therapist both climb your own mountains, but the therapist can see on yours what you cannot (e.g. avalanche is about to fall, there is a alternative route, or that you are forgetting to use your ice axe)

• There's also an original IT metaphor - you are creating a new code, which is not going to replace the old one, but you can run it instead of the previous version

​

From practical point of view, it is useful to compare psychological counselling and psychotherapy. Counselling

• Is usually a one-time contact, whether in person, by mail, phone, skype etc.

• You state your issue to the specialist, elaborating briefly and emphasizing the present situation

• He responds with an opinion, advice or inquiry

• Ideally, you acquire a new perspective on your situation, and then proceed to do what is necessary. Or, by contrast, you realize your old perspective is perfectly fine and proceed according to it

• Unfortunately, sometimes we cannot put the advice to use ("now I know, that my problem is connected to X, and I should do Y - but I just can't"). This is the point when therapy comes into play.

​

Psychoterapy

• Is a process of meeting a psychotherapist, usually once a week for a few months

• This allows for development of therapeutic relationship and exploring relevant topics

• Communication is more dialogic, and focuses more on internal experiences than on external events

• Improvement in therapy is based on

  • deepened self-knowledge and awareness of causality and context

  • experiencing of ones self and feelings, in a stable and warm therapeutic relationship

  • training / application of acquired knowledge and experiences

• At the same time, human psyche is not a machine that can be disassembled and repaired at will. There's a lot that we do not know and can not do

• Therefore, rather than warranting results, psychotherapy gives realistic hope (see "6. Does therapy work?")

​