10 Reasons Why You Need Counselling
How Can Counselling Help You?
When it comes to solutions, we usually go for the shortest and quickest route. Whether that route is suitable for you is another matter. Sometimes certain routes ultimately lead you towards counselling. Additionally here has been many times where people don’t know what they’re looking for and they find and settle with the first therapist they find. While luck has a part to play, usually the first therapist isn’t your last. You might go from therapist to therapist to find ‘the one’. I’m here to tell you that’s an okay solution, but there’s better ways to distinguish the best counsellor for you, which goes back to my point of people wanting the shortest and quickest route. I will also highlight why a person would also need therapy and connect this idea of finding a solution to your problem. So here are 10 ways such a route can be achieved:
1)What is the need and role of a counsellor? Their job is to help you connect the dots in your life. There are two finer points: the counsellor’s role is to put you at ease and see what’s going on for you and to provide you with the right skills so you can go away with a metaphorical shield protecting you from the world’s negativity.
2) The counsellor doesn’t judge. Your friend, parent, sibling, a spouse may be caring but since they have an emotional connection with you, their point of view is quite subjective and this can be either beneficial or counter-productive in the long term. With the counsellor, their relationship is that of a helper and healer, their job is to be neutral, a facilitator guiding you while looking outside the box for the right solutions.
3) The counsellor’s job is to hold a metaphorical mirror and present you with how you are rather than pretending how you ought to be. See, lots of people get this mixed up, as they assume counsellors only tell us what we want to hear. Rather, we tell you what you should hear, but in a diplomatic manner.
4) We try to help you quick; just fast enough so we aren’t wasting each others time and not too slow that progress isn’t being made. We don’t want to keep you attached to us. Once your wings develop, you’re ready to fly.
5) We use lots of assignments inside and outside of therapy sessions. See, CBT therapy isn’t like other therapies, we use lots of framework tools depending on your problem and build a blueprint of your problem together so that we can both have a better understanding of who you are.
6) Therapy is evidence-based. Counsellors adhere to protocols, we don’t just talk, there is a process involved. When I’m talking to clients, I always think about a list of possible questions, perhaps none of them are suitable but I hypothesise a list of solutions and discuss this with the client. It gets the client to think deeper about their issues and helps them become their own counsellor in the long-term.
7) We help with so many problem areas, it’s hard to list them all here. But let’s say you think you have anxiety, you can do a quick google search and if the symptoms meet your own problem area, then you can find a therapist who deals with that particular issue. Most counsellors (including me), will do a free call to decipher what’s going on for you and whether I can help you. If I think your problem is outside my expertise, I will refer you to someone who I think can help. So there is no loss to you, only another step closer to solving your worries.
8) Counsellors require constant training. New theories emerge, old ways change, so we need to accommodate for that. This ensures we help you in ways that actually work and abandon practices that no longer serve us.
9) Counsellors can see you online, in-person or even at your home, yes we are that flexible. Most people assume counsellors see people in some reserved office in a concealed building in the middle of nowhere. We aren’t nomadic but thanks for the thought. Usually we will work in the town centre of a city as that is the central hub, everybody comes and goes there. So in essence, we are very accessible and we are here for you and you only.
10) Counsellors are supervised. If we think our own thought processes are interfering with client’s views, then our supervisor can easily pick that up within us and helps us to identify the cause of such interfering processes. This ensures the counselling session is all about you.
So here are 10 ways counsellors can help you and why you should visit them if you have a problem that doesn’t go away. We all need help sometimes and it’s ok to ask for it, nobody is here to judge. Until next time.
