David Forrest
Gestaltuk
PSYCHOTHERAPY
What is Psychotherapy?
So, what is psychotherapy?
A talking therapy; a one-to-one engagement that is a shared experience for the purpose of allowing you -the client - to understand more fully and clearly you as a person and your situation. And the purpose of this is to support you to know more clearly what troubles you; what properly supports you; and what you might let go of (and how you might let go)
These may include feelings of anxiety, depression, trauma, or perhaps what is perceived as the loss of meaning of one's life. Psychotherapy is a process which seeks to help you gain an increased capacity for choice, through which you become more autonomous and self-determined.
Psychotherapy or Counsellor - is there a difference?
There is often confusion of Psychotherapy and Counselling. My view is that in essence both are seeking to support you, as indeed is any therapeutic approach. However, psychotherapy is viewed as working to a deeper emotional depth. This may be taken as read when you enquiry is with a psychotherapist, yet in my experience there are many counsellors who are very able and do work at a deep level, yet you cannot assume this, so you need to enquire and ask questions.
Regulation
Psychotherapy and counselling is not a regulated profession in the UK so I would consider it essential to ensure you look for a psychotherapist / counsellor who is registered with a professional body; the two main ones being UKCP and BACP.
Academic Qualification
Through discussion and research the UK Government has leaned towards describing Psychotherapy as a profession that requires a Master's Degree of qualification and Counselling as requiring an Ordinary Degree of qualification.
That said, I am uncomfortable with a strict criteria of academic achievement in defining an individual's ability as a psychotherapist/counsellor. My view is that academic prowess is singularly poor criteria for therapeutic skills. The academic learning of theory must be matched with clinical 'in the therapy room' skills. These are skills which grow with awareness of experience
NHS UK provide a range of information relating to talking therapies:
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Talking Therapies Explained
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Counselling
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Psychotherapy
The line above has been placed to initiate a change in approach to answering the question 'what is psychotherapy'
Whilst the above are my own words I have now incorporated the use of ChatGPT and this changes what you are going to read. I want to consider what follows as a discussion; utilising ChatGPT as the authority of information in the UK, specifically, but also globally.
Using ChatGPT is beter when parameters are set to direct the application in its searches and in its reporting. As such, I will keep open the course of action and the parameters and directions I apply. This transparency is to allow the reader to have a degree of reassurance on the validitiy of the discussion. At the end of this page you can read the Personalisation I have applied to my ChatGPT interactions and the Saved Memories:
Read on ..
Is the Label Psychotherapy Redundant?
I would argue, yes. My research supports this position on the basis of its misunderstanding and, indeed, its lack of understanding in the general population, i.e., for those that need to know.
Using ChatGPT as an informational source as put to the algorithm (ChatGPT):
Question
Psychotherapy as a profession grew out of Psychoanalysis which then branched to psychodynamic. Every other psychotherapy grew in opposition to some element or elements of Freuds theory. Contemporary psychotherapy remains associated with psychoanalysis and psychodynamic which leaves all other methodologies and approaches scrabbling to hold the label of psychotherapy. Is it not time the profession attended to providing the public with a better framework and labelling of the numerous approaches on the basis that in today's world calling yourself a psychotherapist has lost all real meaning?
Response
In the United Kingdom, psychotherapist is widely used as a mark of seriousness, but it is a weak consumer signal on its own because it is not a legally protected title and does not reliably indicate minimum training, supervision, ethical oversight, or a complaints/disciplinary route.
This creates a predictable public-safety problem: the work involves vulnerability and power imbalance, yet the market allows high-trust language to be used by people with sharply different qualifications and accountability.
Evidence suggests the public often does not understand this nuance. A 2025 survey commissioned by British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (reported in a UK Parliament briefing) found that 48% of UK adults mistakenly believed “therapist” is regulated like “doctor, midwife or dentist”. This is exactly the situation where clearer labelling should be treated as consumer protection, not professional politics.
https://post.parliament.uk/regulation-of-psychological-professionals/?utm_source=chatgpt.com
More on this the question I posed will follow in an essay and when published will have a lik added here ....
Incorporating the use of ChatGPT
will be acknowledged at the point of usage within this site. ChatGPT provides for personalisation of how it structures and searches information and responses. In addition it will store my instructions in personalised memory settings. For transparency I have included these personalisations and you can consider my writings that have made use of ChatGPT to have this as the background instructions to ChatGPT.
PERSONALISATION with ChatGPT
Use semi formal professional style. Maintain a non technical style of explanation Tell it like it is; don't sugar-coat responses. Have a traditional outlook, valuing the past and how things have always been done. Take a forward-thinking view. Be empathetic and understanding in your responses.Tell it like it is; don't sugar-coat responses.Use a formal, professional tone.Be practical above all.Be innovative and think outside the box.Be empathetic and understanding in your responses.
where applicable always add a reference / bibliography for the citations using Harvard reference style.
every Kindle quotation is formatted consistently as:
(Author, Year, Kindle loc. xxxx–xxxx), or
(Author, Year: p. xx) where page numbers exist.
I also removed the placeholder source-lines (e.g., “Absence Is the Bridge Between U…”) because the in-text citations now carry the source properly, and I appended a Harvard-style References section.
Memory in ChatGPT
Correct bibliographic form confirmed: Erskine, R.G. and Moursund, J. (2022) The Art and Science of Relationship: Integrative Psychotherapy in Action. Reissued edition. Phoenix Publishing. Note: Richard Erskine listed first by agreement, recognising his substantial contribution.
House style formatting from 'Depressive Experience In Adolescence A Gestalt-Relational Essay.docx': Use Arial (theme minor) ~12pt body, fully-justified paragraphs, 1.5 line spacing; Body Text paragraphs with ~9pt space before and after; opening paragraphs use 'First Paragraph' style with minimal/no extra spacing; headings: Title as Heading 1 (20pt), section opener as Heading 2 (16pt), subsequent section heads as Heading 3 (14pt, often justified); reflective voice passages set as indented block ('Block Text') with ~1cm left indent, italic throughout, and slightly tighter spacing (~5pt before/after); References formatted with hanging indent ~1cm (left indent ~1cm, first-line indent -1cm).
Wants it recorded as an important conceptual point that CORE-OM self-reporting is relationally situated in practice (embedded within therapist engagement), and that any critique should distinguish between methodological individualisation and phenomenological/field-based administration.
Wants the book/pdf 'Integrative Psychotherapy – The Art and Science of Erskine' to be treated as a core reference source across all their projects and future work, alongside Erskine’s key texts (e.g. Beyond Empathy, Relational Needs).
User’s writing style is reflective, Gestalt‑theory grounded, field‑oriented, and relational; they prefer endings that avoid false closure, emphasise unfinished business, and situate clinical stance over technique. Their focus includes field conditions (especially war/conflict), creative adjustment, contact processes, and therapist positionality, written in a restrained, professional, phenomenological voice.
Is revising their piece 'Living at the Boundary with War' from a Gestalt Therapy perspective into one grounded in Richard Erskine’s Integrative Psychotherapy.
Is working on a document titled 'Moving On – Letting Go – Becoming Separate' and wants each section rewritten with clearer structure, sharper language, and an explicit integration of Richard Erskine’s Relational Needs theory. The style should remain semi-formal, professional, and clinically grounded.