The counselling relationship is used to explore personal problems, to enable us to make sense of our unhappiness. By getting to know ourselves we can understand our feelings and motives better and this can reduce anxiety and ease depression in a deep way. One of the main aims of counselling is to guide us from feeling victims of circumstances to feeling we have some control over our lives. Counselling also looks at how we communicate with each other, guiding us to be more clear and direct - saying what we mean and asking for what we want, being assertive without being aggressive. Sessions usually last 50-60 minutes, once a week for a period of weeks or months, depending on the need and how the counsellor works.
All counselling is totally confidential.
In practice counselling and psychotherapy overlap. Both can help us deal with our problems in a fresh way and enrich our lives generally. But where counselling tends to focus on a specific current problem, psychotherapy, while including all the above, tends to look at the more deep-seated issues. See Psychotherapy Information How to choose the right counsellor for you . The more open you can be the more you will gain from the counselling.