As counsellors, our main goal is to help you manage excess stress, anxiety, and different emotional concerns that are interfering with your quality of life.
If you are feeling on edge, angry, hopeless, or simply not like yourself, you probably need some extra support. Regardless of whether or not you have a safe person to speak with in your life, counselling can help you dig deeper, gain insights, and resolve issues to improve your day-to-day life.
There are various therapeutic approaches that can be tailored to your individual needs, but ultimately, counsellors should create a safe space for you to open up about your experiences and share tools to help you understand and deal with your emotions in a positive way.
Here is what you can expect from a counsellor
Contrary to popular belief, a counsellor will not directly advise you on how to feel, think, or act. Rather, therapy is a partnership between counsellor and client that helps the patient explore the purpose and cause of everything from their negative thought patterns to detrimental decisions and harmful beliefs.
Relationship Building
The first counselling session is a meet and greet session where we get to know each other. It is here that the counsellor will set expectations about their process, methods and approach to therapy.
It is then that you are able to begin sharing to give the counsellor a better idea of your current situation.
A counsellor-patient relationship should involve a lot of trust. Your counsellor should feel like a friend, someone you are comfortable speaking with and building an open relationship with.
Methodology, or Approach
Every counsellor has a preferred way or ways that they approach therapy. There are many different modalities that can be used in counselling to help patients resolve their emotional stress and reach a better state of well-being.
These methodologies have tools that you can use when you feel your foundation become a bit shaky. Ideally, with these tools, you can build a stronger emotional foundation and grow the confidence and skills needed to resolve your issues, eventually, unassisted.
Some common methodologies are Humanistic methods of counselling, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Somatic Therapy, and Emotionally Focused Therapy. All of these different modalities approach therapy a bit differently and offer different solutions based on your individual needs.
Before attending counselling, look into various types of modalities and get a feeling for what may work best for you. Find a counsellor who offers more than one modality that interests you.
Collaborative Work
The ideal therapeutic relationship will include collaboration between the counsellor and the client. Often, people look at counsellors as experts and wait for the session to be directed by the professional. While this is appropriate in certain situations, a client-directed session is just as valuable to the process.
Ultimately, you know what you need better than anyone else.
Advice
Counsellors are not advisors. Rather, health professionals that are there to support and provide tools for their clients to use when making their own decisions.
The only time a counsellor will offer you advice is during serious or critical situations, and some counsellors are still cautious in such circumstances. Ever heard the Chinese proverb, “Give a person a fish and you feed them for a day. Teach a person to fish, and you feed them for a lifetime”?
Well, advice giving would look more like giving your client a fish, whereas working through the process and providing the client with resources is more like teaching the client to fish.
Goals and Termination
Mutual termination occurs when both you and the counsellor feel as though your goals have been achieved or the initial presenting issues are resolved and better understood.
Final Thoughts
A counsellor-patient relationship is one that is built on trust and openness. A counsellor should provide you with a safe space to explore the root of your problems, heal from past hurt, and re-align your thoughts and behaviours to be more in line with your values and goals.
At Sana, we have many different approaches to therapy and help patients suffering from anxiety, depression, PTSD, relationship issues, and epilepsy.
If you feel like you can benefit from counselling, get in touch today for a free 15-minute consultation!