Description
Counseling and psychotherapy must be adapted to meet the developmental needs of children.
It is generally held to be one part of an effective strategy for some purposes and not for
others. In addition to therapy for the child, or even instead of it, children may benefit if their
parents speak to a therapist, take parenting classes, attend grief counseling, or take other
actions to resolve stressful situations that affect the child. Parent management training is a
highly effective form of psychotherapy that teaches parents skills to reduce their child’s
behavior problems.. Psychotherapy can be said to have been practiced through the ages.
Historically, psychotherapy has sometimes meant “interpretative” (i.e. Freudian) methods,
namely psychoanalysis, in contrast with other methods to treat psychiatric disorders such as
behavior modification. Psychotherapy may be delivered in person, one on one or in groups,
over the phone via telephone counseling, or via the internet. Psychotherapists may be mental
health professionals, professionals from other backgrounds trained in a specific therapy, or
in some cases non-professionals. Psychiatrists are first trained as physicians. One major aim
of couselling is that it helps people identify problems and crises and encourages them to take
positive steps to resolve these issues, as psychotherapy helps people with psychological
problems that have built up over the course of a long period of time. Counselling and
psychotherapy employ various techniques and strategies to resolve issues or behavioural
problems. Therapy may address specific forms of diagnosable mental illness, or everyday
problems in managing or maintaining interpersonal relationships or meeting personal goals.
A course of therapy may happen before, during or after pharmacotherapy (e.g. taking
psychiatric medication).
