Apr 16 2007
Counseling & Psychotherapy
The term psychotherapy comes from two Greek words, “psyche” and “therapeutikos”, meaning servant of the psyche or soul. Every soul has the opportunity through life’s challenges to learn, grow and express themselves creatively. Relationships challenge and support this growth and provide opportunities to develop a greater capacity for loving and being loved. Psychotherapy can be a way to explore healing and growth for a child, an adolescent, an adult, a couple, or a family.
In earlier times, the “servants of the soul” in the community were the elders, shamans, or oracles. As individuals or families encountered life experiences that were bewildering or unbalancing, they would consult these individuals for assistance in healing and growth, enter into the mystery of healing and activate a transformation to a new level of understanding and harmony within themselves and the world around them.
As humans moved more toward the development of the rational mind, psychotherapy became a bridge between the conscious, rational mind and the deeper aspects of the psyche contained in the unconscious. The pioneers of this bridge building were Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung. In the early years of psychotherapy, these two spent their lifetimes exploring the realms of the unconscious and clients spent years in analysis.
In these times, there are a multitude of theories and methods in the field of psychotherapy and counseling, including psychoanalytic, cognitive-behavioral, existential, humanistic, EMDR, transpersonal, developmental, depth and systems, to name a few. While each looks at the human experience through slightly different lenses, all share the same common roots.
Beginning July 1, 2009, the State of Washington has created legal definitions for psychotherapy and counseling and they are as follows:
Psychotherapy: “The practice of counseling using diagnosis of mental disorders according to the 4th edition of the diagnotic and statistical manual of mental disorders, published in 1994, and the development of treatment plans for counseling based on diagnosis of mental disorders in accordance with established practice standards.” (RCW 18.19) Only licensed counselors and licensed social workers are credentialed by the state to provide psychotherapy by this definition.
Counseling: “Employing any therapeutic techniques, including but not limited to social work, mental health counseling, marriage and family therapy, and hypnotherapy, for a fee, that offer, assist or attempt to assist an individual or individuals in the amelioration or adjustment of mental, emotional, or behavioral problems, and includes therapeutic techniques to achieve sensitivity and awareness of self and others and the development of human potential” (RCW 18.19)
All therapists at Full Circle are credentialed by the state to provide counseling, and currently we have two who are credentialed to provide psychotherapy as the state defines it. They are both LICSWs.