How can counseling help me?
Everyone goes through challenging situations in life and there’s nothing wrong with seeking out extra support when you need it. Counselors can offer support, problem-solving skills, and healthy coping strategies for issues such as depression, anxiety, relationship troubles, unresolved childhood issues, grief, stress management, body image issues and creative blocks. Counselors can be a tremendous asset in helping you manage personal growth, interpersonal relationships, family concerns, marriage issues, and the hassles of daily life.
Some of the benefits of counseling include:
- Attaining a better understanding of yourself, your goals and values
- Developing skills for improving your relationships
- Finding resolution to the challenges or concerns that led you to seek therapy
- Learning new ways to cope with stress and anxiety and physical pain
- Managing anger, grief, depression, and other emotional pressures
- Improving communications and listening skills
- Changing old behavior patterns and developing new ones
- Discovering new ways to solve problems in your family or marriage
- Improving your self-esteem and boosting self-confidence
What is counseling like?
Counseling will be different for each person depending on the individual’s challenges and goals. In general, you can expect to discuss the current events happening in your life, your personal history relevant to your challenge, and report progress (or any new insights gained) from the previous therapy session. Depending on your specific needs, counseling can be short-term, for a specific issue, or longer-term, to deal with more difficult patterns or your desire for more personal development. Either way, it is most common to schedule regular weekly sessions with your counselor at first. Eventually, those transition to bi-weekly, once a month, and eventually come to an end as you reach your goals.
It is important to understand that you will get more results from counseling if you actively participate in the process. The ultimate purpose of counseling is to help you bring what you learn in session back into your life. Therefore, beyond the work you do in counseling sessions, your counselor may suggest some things you can do outside of therapy to support your process – such as reading a pertinent book, keeping a journal on specific topics, noting particular behaviors or taking action on your goals. People seeking counseling are ready to make positive changes in their lives, open to new perspectives and ready to take responsibility for their lives.
Does what we talk about in counseling remain confidential?
Confidentiality is one of the most important components between a client and counselor. Successful counseling requires a high degree of trust with highly sensitive subject matter that is usually not discussed anywhere but in the counseling session. You can expect that what you discuss in session will not be shared with anyone; however, there may be times you want your therapist to share information or give an update to someone on your healthcare team (e.g. your physician, your attorney). By law your counselor cannot release this information without obtaining your written permission first.
There are limitations to confidentiality mandated by state law and professional ethics including, but not limited to, the following situations:
- Suspected abuse or neglect of a minor child, dependent adult, or elderly person 65 or older to the authorities, including Child Protection and law enforcement, based on information provided by the client or collateral sources.
- If the therapist has reason to suspect the client is seriously in danger of harming him/herself or has threatened to harm another person.
- A court order (not a subpoena) directing the disclosure of information. Litigation such as child custody suits may lead to a court-ordered release of your information without your consent.