Counseling & Psychotherapy

Receiving guidance from a highly trained, impartial third party, who provides you with evidence-based techniques and valuable personal insights, can make significant and permanent changes in how you and your family view and interact with the world.

Psychotherapy vs. Counseling

What is the difference? Most people use the terms psychotherapy and counseling interchangeably. There are differences that are described below, but because your clinician will work with you to develop your individualized treatment goals, these differences will not affect your experience at SVP. So, for simplicity, we use the term “therapy” to describe all of our psychotherapy and counseling services.

Psychotherapy tends to focus on managing, reducing, or eliminating clinical mental health disorders, such as depression, anxiety, bipolar, post-traumatic stress, attention-deficit and hyperactivity, learning disorders, etc. The problems can be either acute or chronic and may involve modifying thought processes, habits, or behaviors that are caused by the disorder, or contribute to maintaining it. Psychotherapy can be short-term or long-term, depending on the complexity and severity of the problem and the individual client. Psychotherapy not only involves learning new skills or techniques, it can also involve analyzing and modifying your behaviors, thought patterns, and recurrent emotions. This sometimes requires openness to exploring the past and its impact on the present.

Counseling is typically short-term treatment for specific behaviors or problems that tend to stem from normal life challenges or transitions, such as beginning or ending school, jobs or relationships, becoming a new parent, dealing with interpersonal conflicts, retirement, divorce, etc. Counseling focuses primarily on the present and the steps needed to successfully adapt to normal life situations.

Both psychotherapy and counseling can be a tremendous help in improving different areas of your life, but the process of change can have risks as well. Since therapy often involves discussing unpleasant aspects of your life, you may experience temporary uncomfortable feelings like sadness, guilt, anger, frustration, loneliness, and helplessness. However, there is extensive research that shows statistically significant improvements in those who engage in psychotherapy. Therapy often leads to improved relationships, significantly reduced distress, solutions to specific problems, and better quality of life. Of course individual experiences in therapy can vary greatly depending on the severity of problems and level of openness and involvement on the part of the client. Psychotherapy is different from a medical doctor visit, in that therapy requires a very active effort on your part during the hour you are in session and throughout the rest of your week.

For more information on therapy, please see our FAQ section.

Services for Children, Teens, and Adults

Individual Care

Many individuals seek therapy to help facilitate change and improve their well-being in a variety of different facets of their life. For examples, therapy can help increase self-esteem, courage, and positive feelings. Therapy can also target specific problems such as anxiety and depression, as well as everyday stressors due to relationships and work. The relationship between an individual and a therapist is one based on trust and collaboration where in clients gain self-awareness and can recognize growth within themselves.

For more information on therapy, please see our FAQ section.

Couples Care

Some of the issues a couple may seek therapy for are poor communication, lack of intimacy, infidelity, power struggles, and sexual dissatisfaction. One significant difference between individual and couple’s therapy is the allegiance of the therapist. In individual therapy, the therapist always has the client’s best interest in mind. In couple’s therapy, the therapist has an equal alliance with each member of the couple, and always has the best interest of the relationship in mind. Often in order to improve the relationship, each partner is required work on their own self-improvement and self-awareness as well as the relationship issues.

For more information on therapy, please see our FAQ section.

Family Care

Family therapy is designed to address specific issues that affect the psychological health of the family unit. Similarly to couples therapy, in family therapy the therapist is not directly aligned with any one of the individual family members, but instead always has the best interest of the family unit in mind. These may involve any stressful event that may strain family relationships, such as financial hardship, divorce, or the death of a loved one, or everyday concerns, like communication problems, frequent arguing, lack of cooperation, or behavioral problems in children and adolescents. When one or more family members are dealing with their own mental health concerns, such as depression, substance abuse, or chronic medical illness, it usually impacts the family as a whole. Family problems may involve major life transitions or mental health conditions. It may be used as the primary mode of treatment or as a complementary approach.

For more information on therapy, please see our FAQ section.

Group Care

Group therapy is a shared therapeutic experience that is facilitated by one or two therapists, and other clients who are working through similar issues. This collaborative form of therapy can focus on interpersonal relationships or on particular concerns shared by group members. Groups may have a more structured format, similar to an educational class, or may have a more open format where members discuss whatever is important to them at the time. There are numerous psychological and emotional issues that are treated in group therapy, ranging from anxiety and depression and other disorders to normal life transitions, such as becoming a new parent, divorce, retirement, etc.

People may choose group therapy by itself, or as a supplement their individual therapy, to access additional support, or as the next step in their treatment plan. Participants in group sessions find discussing their problems with those who can offer genuine empathy gives them a sense of belonging and encouragement. Additionally, it can be therapeutic for group therapy members to provide support and direction for others struggling with the same issues they may have faced in the past. We encourage you to discuss with your individual therapist if a group therapy experience is appropriate for you and your treatment goals.

For more information on therapy, please see our FAQ section.