RPL use the following to steer clients towards the help they need:

Counselling

A training which will help you with short term, current problem solving and clarification in relationships or personal issues.

Psychology

A training that is designed to diagnose, assess and grade the severity of your condition, mostly in the anxiety and depression range. Questionnaires are followed by recommendations which focus on behavioural change and medication levels. It is symptom focussed and works with narrowly defined labels. Their main work is in assessments for either legal, educational or medical recommendations and are supported and sponsored by the NHS and Social Services.

Counselling Psychology

A training that helps you with diagnostic skill, behavioural changes, while combining counselling skills. There may be occasional references to the terms psychodynamic and cognitive, in relation to working models of change for people. These do not deliver depth or long term range of analysis although it appears similar to therapy. Many of the models are aimed at delivering the quickest change in the shortest possible time, leaving the potential for relapse high due to the underlying subconscious structures which remain unmoved. This makes them have an obvious appeal to the NHS where they are supported and sponsored.

Cognitive & Psychodynamic

Models which many claim to have, but few work with in depth, despite their claim that this is therapy. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and its variants (DBT & CAT) believe that by changing your thinking you can change your emotional approach to an issue. Loaded with quick fix appeal, it may work for a number of short term issues, a limited period of time, or a certain type/profile of person. Relapse and the recurrence of underlying subconscious issues are not touched with this approach. Psychodynamic counselling is an attempt to take some of Freud's models without all of his thinking and method. This does probe some aspects of the subconscious, but once again tries to short cut the long term work necessary to fully resolve issues. At RPL, we do not consider these models as psychotherapy, although they are useful at certain points when working with some clients.

Psychiatry

Using symptom classifications (from manuals called DSM IV or ICD 10) based on questionnaires and assessment tools, this approach to problems is to define the right levels of medication and refer the person to some sort of therapy. Referrals tend to be to cognitive based (behavioural) therapists as these are sponsored by the NHS. Psychiatrists work closely with pharmaceutical and drug companies and act as consultants for GPs with difficult clients.

Psychotherapy/Therapy

A training based on the work/models/methods of Freud, Jung and (for transpersonal/spiritual dimensions) Assagioli, there is in depth skill and ethical responsibility towards the client for either short or long term work, with a focus on the subconscious, ego formation, sense of Self, and long term resolution. This is achieved because of the value given to significant persons in the past of the client who still control their lives as adults. They were originally called the Analytic or Psychoanalytic schools of therapy. Therapeutic status is also recognised at RPL for those who have trained in Person Centred (Carl Rogers), Transactional Analysis (Eric Berne) and Gestalt (Fritz Perls), forming the Humanist schools of therapy.

Qualifications and accreditation do not mean that the therapist has exposed themselves to the self-understanding required to work in depth with you. It is more about your sense of their experience and skill, and the ring/resonance of truth about their responses as they conduct their sessions, that will determine whether the therapist you have met is the right one for you. Because of the long term nature of the work, it is rarely financed by the NHS, and you will have to assess whether the investment in your life will be a worthwhile one. Periodic reviews of your sessions with a therapist are recommended.