There are many different types of counselling available, and within each type you will also experience counsellors who work in very different ways.  A brief description of the main types follows:

Psychoanalytic/psychodynamic counselling...

This approach looks at the present psychological difficulties in terms of the client's early experiences, especially their relationships with family.  Techniques such as dream work, free association and interpretation of feelings and fantasies cam be used to recover this 'unconscious' material.  Early relationship patterns are believed to be repeated in the relationship between the client and therapist, a phenomenon known as 'transference'. The therapist works with this transference to help the client understand how their past maybe influencing their actions in the present.

Humanistic/person-centred...

This therapy acknowledges that the best expert on the client is the client themselves and in the self-healing capacity of every individual.  The therapist aims to facilitate an equal relationship with their client.  This approach stresses the quality of the counsellor/client relationship. Warmth, honesty, unconditional acceptance and empathy are essential elements to a successful rapport developing between the therapist and the client.

Existential phenomenological...

This approach helps us to examine what it means to be human.  It acknowledges the place of 'givens' in all of our lives - that we are ultimately alone, that we can't escape from death... and looks at how we manage to live a meaningful life within these constraints.     

Transpersonal...

The focus here is on spiritual experience and awakening the healing capacity of the client's Self or Soul. Psychological difficulties are understood from a spiritual perspective and techniques such as creative visualisation, prayer and meditation may be used.

Systemic...

This perspective deals with psychological difficulties by examining the groups and families the individual belongs to. A systemic approach explores the individual's relationships and communication patterns and the ideas and beliefs they hold. The group an individual belongs to is viewed as a system with its own rules and goals.

Cognitive/behavioural...

This works on the theory that we are all conditioned by our upbringing to behave and think in certain ways. These therapies challenge negative ways of thinking, behaving and feeling by helping the client to develop practical coping skills. There is emphasis on how to act in the here and now rather than on how the ways of thinking have come about.

Integrative...

The therapist may use a combination of the above approaches depending on their client's needs and resources. Integrative therapists believe different psychotherapeutic perspectives have significant links between them and that no one specific approach is the right one.