FAQS

According to the American Psychiatric Association (APA), therapy is "a way to help people with a wide variety of mental illnesses and emotional difficulties."

Through the psychotherapeutic process, you can gain a deeper understanding of yourself, feelings, thoughts, and behaviors. Psychotherapy helps you to learn how to take control of your own life by building your self-esteem, reducing anxiety, strengthening coping mechanisms, improving social functioning, and responding to difficult situations with appropriate attitudes and skills.

In Greece, the cost of psychotherapy is not covered by public insurance funds, unlike in other countries. However, this is offset by the fact that the average cost of psychotherapy in Greece is much lower than the average cost in other countries. The fact that a psychotherapeutic process aims in the continuous and comprehensive improvement of the treated person, even after the closure of the psychotherapeutic sessions, makes it perhaps the best personal investment that one can make for oneself and those around them. There are various forms of psychotherapy that differ in approach, duration, and frequency. The coordinating psychiatrist in cooperation with you will suggest the most appropriate one for you.

A psychiatrist has studied medicine and is therefore a doctor with specialization in psychiatry. A psychologist is a graduate of the Psychology Department. The psychiatrist has the education and experience to approach patients by exploring their physical health as well as the organic basis of mental disorders, intervening where necessary, and using medication. The psychologist focuses on providing psychological therapy regarding cognitive and social factors that affect people's emotions and functionality. Both the psychiatrist and the psychologist, after completing the appropriate theoretical and practical training, can obtain the title of psychotherapist in the corresponding psychotherapy in which they were trained. Several mental disorders require a combination of medication and psychotherapy for quick relief from symptoms and more comprehensive treatment.

Pharmacological treatment is indicated only for major psychiatric disorders and includes medications for anxiety, depression, antipsychotics, and sleep disorders. The psychiatrist has the appropriate education and knowledge to determine which mental disorders and symptoms will improve from the administration of pharmacological treatment. However, a crucial part of a comprehensive treatment is psychoeducation, psychotherapy, and training in social and other skills.

Counseling and psychotherapy are two distinct forms of personal development and dealing with various difficulties, based on a framework of trust and security and structured through a dialogical process.

Counseling aims to secure emotional and cognitive development, prevent difficulties, promote mental health and well-being. It focuses more on the easier handling of issues and difficulties of everyday life, decision making, and motivation search, and works with the individual to achieve their individual goals, to reach a condition of self-realization. Therefore, it is usually a short-term process that concerns the resolution of specific issues and broader adaptation and personal development.

Psychotherapy, on the other hand, acts on a more therapeutic level and aims to solve deeper conflicts and more complex difficulties and issues. It is a more long-term, although not always, method of dealing with psychological problems or understanding oneself, relationships, and experience, through therapeutic communication and the formation of a therapeutic, secure relationship between the therapist and the patient. Of course, there is a plethora of psychotherapeutic approaches, which differ in their theory, practice, and duration.