The usual astrological advice through the analysis of a horoscope does not drastically change a person's capabilities or course in life. Moreover, there are a significant number of disciplines which try to provide similar counseling. The most prominent is psychoanalysis, which is concerned with ameliorating the individual's aptitude to deal with life from an essential psychosomatic point of view. Nonetheless, astrology can be used as an addition to these processes.

Certainly, the two areas under discussion do have common characteristics and a lot of astrology practitioners are studying psychology along with astrology, but there is a difference in how the two fields of study operate. When it comes to psychotherapy, sessions are likely to be frequent, maybe on a weekly basis, but a visit to an astrologer may be paid once in a year.

The astrologers have a specific role in society. Most people who visit an astrologer have problems, but it is a question of degree. The person who has had several suicide attempts might not gain all that much from a sole visit to an astrologer. Certainly, the majority of astrologers’ clients do not have so severe problems. As a rule, they don't want their lives turned around in one meeting, but they do want a quick and smart evaluation of what the future holds for them. There is also the perennial issue of personal relationships, which is a subject for guidance through the specific astrological technique that is called synastry. For these reasons astrological prediction will always be in demand, provided it can satisfy the clients.

The main reason astrology has outlived so long over the centuries is that it essentially is a prognostic art. But again the word prognosis can recall dissimilar things in the mind of people. Following the scientific boom of the last centuries and the prevalence of mechanistic conceptions of the Universe in philosophy, contemporary astrologers can disagree with the fatalistic perception of life and a lot of modern astrologers are denying prediction altogether in favor of a purely psychological approach of astrology. However, destiny can still play a role in our lives, but this does not mean that astrologers should try to declare prediction as an exact science because it is not. If it were, life would be a lot more fatalistic than it really is. Successful forecasts stretch out halfway between the "exact science" and the wide-ranging generalities which a lot of astrologers honor by the name "prediction", in order to exalt their astrological advice.