Psychotherapy is the treatment of a client's mental health problems by talking with a psychiatrist, psychologist, licensed clinical social worker or other mental health provider. During psychotherapy a client learns about their moods, feelings, thoughts and behaviours and how to better respond to life's challenges. Psychotherapy includes interactive processes between a person or group and a qualified mental health professional (psychiatrist, psychologist, clinical social worker, licensed counsellor, or other trained practitioner).

Its purpose is the exploration of thoughts, feelings and behaviour for the purpose of problem solving or achieving higher levels of functioning. Psychotherapy aims to increase the individual's sense of his/her own well-being. Psychotherapists employ a range of techniques based on experiential relationship building, dialogue, communication and behaviour change that are designed to improve the mental health of a client or patient, or to improve group relationships (such as in a family).

Psychology is an academic and applied discipline that involves the scientific study of mental functions and behaviours. Psychology has the immediate goal of understanding individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases, and by many accounts it ultimately aims to benefit society. In this field, a professional practitioner or researcher is called a psychologist and can be classified as a social, behavioural, or cognitive scientist. Psychologists attempt to understand the role of mental functions in individual and social behaviour, while also exploring the physiological and biological processes that underlie cognitive functions and behaviours.

Psychologists explore concepts such as perception, cognition, attention, emotion, intelligence, phenomenology, motivation, brain functioning, personality, behaviour, and interpersonal relationships, including psychological resilience, family resilience, and other areas. Psychologists employ empirical methods to infer causal and correlational relationships between psychosocial variables. Psychology has been described as a "hub science", with psychological findings linking to research and perspectives from the social sciences, natural sciences, medicine, and the humanities, such as philosophy.