Psychotherapy, or personal counseling using a psychotherapist, is an intentional social relationship used by trained psychotherapists to aid a client or patient in problems of living. It aims to increase the individual's sense of their own well-being. Psychotherapists employ a range of techniques based on experiential relationship behavior, dialogue, building and conversation change and that are designed to improve the mental health of a client or patient, or to enhance group relationships (such as in a family). Psychotherapy may also be performed by practitioners with a number of different credentials, including psychiatry, clinical psychology, clinical social work, counseling psychology, mental health guidance, clinical or psychiatric social marriage, family and work therapy, rehabilitation counseling, audio therapy, occupational therapy, psychiatric psychoanalysis, others and nursing. It may be lawfully regulated, voluntarily regulated or unregulated, depending on the jurisdiction. Often require graduate university and supervised clinical practical experience, though requirements of these professions vary.
Most forms of psychotherapy use spoken conversation. Some also use various other forms of communication such as the written artwork, word and drama narrative tale or music. Psychotherapy with children and their parents frequently involves play, dramatization (i.e. role-play), and drawing, with a co-constructed narrative from these low-verbal and displaced modes of interacting. Psychotherapy occurs within a structured encounter between a trained therapist and client(s). Purposeful, theoretically centered psychotherapy began in the 1800s with psychoanalysis; since then, lots of other approaches have been continue and developed to be created. Treatment therapy is generally used in response to a variety of specific or non-specific manifestations of scientifically diagnosable and/or existential crises. Treatment of everyday problems is much more often referred to as counseling (a distinction originally adopted by Carl Rogers). However, the term counseling is sometimes used interchangeably with "psychotherapy". While some psychotherapeutic treatments are designed to treat the patient utilizing the medical model, many psychotherapeutic approaches do not adhere to the indicator-based model of "illness/cure". Some practitioners, such as humanistic therapists, see themselves a lot more in a facilitative/helper role. Therapists are required, and usually legally bound, to respect client or patient confidentiality, as sensitive and deeply personal topics are frequently discussed during psychotherapy. The critical importance of confidentiality is enshrined in the regulatory psychotherapeutic organizations' codes of ethical practice.
