What is psychology and psychotherapy?

Psychology is an academic discipline, a profession and a science dealing with the study of mental processes and the behaviour of people.

A psychologist holds a degree in psychology from an accredited program. Many providers of psychological services are licensed under state law. Licensed psychologists generally hold a postgraduate university degree in psychology and have two years of supervised work experience.

Psychological therapies (also termed psychotherapy) that are provided by psychologists vary from counselling in that they are often based on a comprehensive initial psychological assessment and target complex emotional presentations that require more specialised help than generalist counselling procedures.

Specialised psychotherapy often involves the implementation of treatments for psychological difficulties or disorders that, through research, have been demonstrated to be effective.

The main aspect of psychological therapy is that it is more in depth and sometimes of longer duration than counselling, and does not involves the use of medications.