Why do people go to a therapist or counselor? Here are the four levels of therapy and counseling that will benefit or add to your life fruitfully and in some cases in ways that you could only guess at.

The first level is symptomatic or problem-based counseling. If you have a specific issue, like experiencing disturbing nightmares, recurring eczema or skin complaints, irritation, negativity or relationship issues, counseling -- usually short-term -- can be of great benefit. The aim is obvious and clear: to deal with the presenting issue, not dig too deeply and find a solution, a way through, a way to overcome the problem. Usually anything from 6 to 10 sessions should be enough and with an effective practitioner the job should be done.

Second is therapy that digs a little deeper than the first level of purely symptomatic counseling. So looking for the underlying causes of presenting problems is almost certainly involved. For example, a man in midlife suffering a crisis of confidence finds that his relationship with his domineering father is the underlying cause of his present-day concerns, which affect his functioning adversely in the work place. Or, in another example, a woman in her late-thirties who finds that she is attracted to younger men rediscovers her unlived adolescence which she forfeited for early security, marriage and motherhood when she left home at 19 to marry a man who was materially secure. But while he offered her financial and material security he was unable to meet her emotionally and intimately in the relationship. In both these examples a deeper cause or association is the key to resolving the issue.

Third is what has become known as classic psychotherapy, depth psychotherapy or major psychotherapy (so many names!). In this approach to inner work the client (or patient if it is analysis) enters into a long-term commitment with a competent practitioner whose training and ability enables him to guide competently through the inner terrain to the very source of the client's psyche. Deep existential issues may arise such as: Who am I? What if my purpose? How did I come to be? And for the spiritual or religiously inclined, the source of being, or an experience of the numinous dimension of life.

Finally, the fourth level of psychotherapy and counseling is transpersonal or psycho-spiritual. This may include the previous three levels, particularly depth psychotherapy, but it goes beyond personality, character and associated issues into the spiritual, transcendent and divine realms of human experience and reality. Arguably the cutting-edge of inward discovery this approach is considered by many people (including myself) to be vital today since it is directly related to ecology, political strife and injustice, bigotry, religious intolerance and ignorance. Not only is it the intention of psycho-spiritual therapy to awaken the client-seeker individually, but it is also to awaken collective humanity.

BLOG entry #107