Individual Therapy is a form of psychotherapy where the client is treated as an individual. Psychotherapy is a set of techniques intended to improve mental health, emotional or behavioral issues of individuals, family members or a whole family's interactional climate. Mental health problems can have psychological, social and somatic dimensions. These issues often make it hard for people to manage their lives and and achieve their goals. Psychotherapy is aimed at these problems and attempts to solve – or help people themselves to solve – them via a number of different approaches and techniques.

The term counseling is used often used interchangeably with psychotherapy. Generally, counseling deals with ordinary every day problems and issues, while psychotherapy deals with deeper life issues. Counseling also tends to imply a less interventionist approach based on listening skills. Psychotherapy may practice interventions designed to treat the client in the medial model. Often there is overlap in philosophies and techniques that both psychotherapists and counselors employ. In this article the term can be taken to be the same as psychotherapy.

To emphasize the voluntary, free agency, consumer orientation of people seeking psychotherapy, they are often called clients, but psychotherapy as a method of treatment is regulated by the laws concerning patients and their rights. Commonly psychotherapy involves a therapists and client(s) -- and in family therapy several family members or even other members from their social network -- who discuss their issues in an effort to discover the underlying problems and to find constructive solutions. Because sensitive topics are often discussed during psychotherapy, therapists are expected and legally bound to respect client confidentiality.

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